Family Scars
by MysteryWriter2187
Summary: Set in the He's Mine universe. Seven months after the second film, Eret takes Ruffnut and Camicazi to see his homeland while evading capture from the dragon trappers. Eret will need Cami and Ruff's help to learn the importance of his new family and friends while they fight to keep themselves and each other alive.
1. Opening

**_"You have shamed our family name! You are no Son of Eret!"_**

These words rolled through Eret's mind as he sat silently at the small table in the corner of the tavern. The letter he had received told him to be at this table at noon precisely. Whomever it was meeting him was at least half an hour late, but Eret couldn't help but wonder if perhaps they _wanted_ him to wait.

 _Oh why, oh why, oh why did I have to be so stupid?!_ he thought to himself. _I checked the cargo hold at least three times, how did they even end up in there?!_

He was distracted from his thoughts of self-pity when a voice said _"so... you are the latest Son of Eret, are you?"_

Eret turned to face the dark, hooded shadow that stood behind him. The tavern was not well lit, so all he could make out of the man's face was his thick lips and dark yet thin beard. He was not afraid, however, simply scoffing as he turned back to the table and said "not if my family's got anything to say about it..."

 _"Ah, yes... the prodigal son... the father's shame..."_ the man walked around the table and stood on the other side so he was facing Eret directly. Eret didn't look up at him, keeping his eyes on the mug he was holding as he said "right... you're the one who wanted to talk, so let's get a move on... first off... who are you and what do you want from me...?"

 _"My name is Krogan."_ the man said as he sat down, keeping his hood over his head so Eret could not see his face. _"You see, Eret... I represent a great leader who comes from the North... I have told him of your incident and... well, he believes you to have great potential..."_

Eret's head pricked up as the man said this, looking up to face him as he said "alright... I'm listening..."

 _"If it is your family's respect you wish to regain, then my organisation may be the perfect opportunity for you to do so..."_

* * *

 **Eight Years Later...**

 _ **"Dragon Riders!"**_ one of the trappers called out as they aimed their arrows, while the others set up their net catapults and prepared to fire.

 _"Top o'the mornin', lads!"_ Eret shouted back as Skullcrusher nose-dived out of the air, the dragon using the large horn on his nose to ram the side of their ship so that it swayed violently from side to side. Many of the trappers lost their footing and some even fell overboard, their cages toppling over and bursting open for the dragons inside them to escape.

Skullcrusher landed on the deck of the ship as Eret dismounted his dragon, drawing out the larger of the two swords on his back and saying _"now, boys... I'm sure you can all see I've got a Rumblehorn 'ere, and I'm not afraid to use 'im... isn't that right, Skullcrusher?"_

The dragon grumbled in agreement as Eret petted his nose, failing to notice one of the trappers grabbing a crossbow with a dragon root dipped arrow attached to it.

 ** _"HE-YAH!"_** a hooded figure jumped down and knocked the crossbow out of the trapper's hand, using her custom made, Razorwhip scale axe to slice it in half as she kicked the man overboard. **_"Eret!"_**

 _"Oh... y'alright, Heather?"_ he snarked back as he pulled out the other sword in his scabbard and used them both to deflect and disarm another trapper. Heather groaned at this, saying "I got Terror Mail from Astrid telling me you'd gone off on your own near Berserker Island. And it looks like I'm just in time to save your ass!"

Heather and Eret soon found themselves back-to-back and surrounded by the trappers, before Heather chuckled and said "so... I assume you have a reason to come out here alone..."

 _"I offered to do community service for the other islands! GAH!"_ Eret grunted as he swatted one trapper out of the way. _"See, the chief wanted the money we helped Astrid earn from that whole dragon nip thing back, so I'm doing this to make up for it..."_

"Oh, yeah... seems it's all working out..."

 _ **"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!"**_ one of the trappers yelled as fire suddenly rained down from the sky, Heather and Eret running to their respective dragons before a Hobblegrunt landed on the deck. A figure rode on the dragon's back, though the scale-patterned body armour they wore allowed them to almost blend into the beast.

As the Hobblegrunt swished her tail to and fro to knock down the trappers, the figure leapt from the dragon's back with two flaming blades drawn. Screaming like a wild animal, the figure kicked, punched and stabbed any dragon trapper in sight. Eventually, Heather, Eret and the figure were the only humans still standing on the ship, with the trappers being either dead, tied up or thrown overboard.

"Well, well, well..." Heather picked her axe out of the mast she'd thrown it into during the fight. "Look who's here..."

 _"Figured you guys could use the help..."_ the armoured figure snarked as she patted her dragon on the nose, taking off her helmet to let her shaggy blonde hair come down freely over her shoulders. Camicazi pressed a button on either of her swords to extinguish the flames and put them on her back holsters, a smug grin on her face as she looked at her fellow riders. _"What's up, Stripes?"_

 _"Eh... I'm not too bad, Cami..."_ Eret shrugged as he patted Skullcrusher's head. _"Not too bad at all..."_

"Nice armour, by the way..." Heather snarked as she eyed what Cami was wearing. "Really brings out your figure..."

 _"Thanks. Stole one of Hiccup's design books last time I was on Berk. Here, check it out."_ Cami pressed a button on the chest armour, causing two large gliding wings to rapidly flip out from the back of her armour. Heather and Eret were both surprised at first, but chuckled as Eret said _"hm... surprised you were smart enough to pull off the building..."_

 _"I'm crazy, Eret. Not stupid. So... you guys doing chores for the dragon nip thing too, huh?"_

"Well, I'm not..." Heather said. "I just heard Eret'd need a hand so... yeah, I'm here..."

 _"As my f... um... as someone I knew used to say, the more the merrier..."_ Eret smiled at them both as he finished cutting open the rest of the cages with dragons in them.

"Hm... well, since we're all here..." Heather said as she casually leaned on her axe, motioning her eyes to the freed dragons. "What d'you say we get these guys back to Berk?"

* * *

With the horde of new dragons joining them, the three landed in the middle of the bustling village, heading up to the Great Hall where the Chief was sure to be. As they reached the top of the steps, they saw Astrid stepping out, giving her only a split second before Cami wrapped her up in her signature embrace that she only saved for members of the Haddock family. And Toothless.

 ** _"Good to see ya, big fella!"_** she shouted ecstatically as the Night Fury charged out to meet her, nearly knocking her down the steps if Cami hadn't latched onto his head. After greeting Heather with a hug, Astrid remained silent but smiling as she looked at Eret.

 _"So, uh... Eret, um... turns out, while you were gone... we got some news..."_

 _ **"Oh my Gods! I knew it!"**_ Cami gasped excitedly as she darted back up the steps on Toothless' back, dismounting the dragon and grabbing Astrid's shoulders as she said _**"when are you due, Astrid?!"**_

 _"What? N... no, it's... nothing to do with that, Cami... ha ha..."_ Astrid chuckled a bit as she itched her arm nervously. Hiccup came out reading silently through a letter, which instantly caught Heather's eye and prompted her to say "who's that from...?"

"Well, it's..." Hiccup scratched the back of his head nervously. "It's for you, Eret..."

 _"Me?"_ Eret took the letter from Hiccup and started reading it. Cami and Heather both looked at Hiccup and Astrid, the latter sounding somewhat curious as she said _"y'know, Eret, I um... well, I knew you had to have come from somewhere, but... well... I didn't realise you had an actual family..."_

 _ **"Family?!"**_ Cami and Heather both raised an eyebrow at this, before glancing at Eret to see how he was reacting to the letter he was reading. His eyes were much wider and his mouth hung open, his bottom lip quivering a bit as if he wanted to say something.

 _"F... f-f-fam... family..."_


	2. Letter

_**Eret - My dearest son...**_

 _ **Your sister has spent several weeks trying to discover your location, as you apparently became disenfranchised with the Bludvist army some eight months ago. Hopefully, this island Berk is the right place to send this letter of utmost importance.**_

 _ **Regretfully, I must inform you that your beloved father, Eret XII, has passed away. He had been gravely ill for the last few months, and I had hoped that I could get you to return home so that he could fulfil his dying wish of making amends with you, our son. But alas, this was simply not meant to be.**_

 _ **Nevertheless, I implore you to attend the burial of your father and the distribution of the gifts outlined in his last will of inheritance.**_ _ **I understand what drove our family apart, son, but now is the ideal moment to bring it back together.**_

 _ **It is time for you to come home, Eret.  
**_ ** _Your dear mother -_ _Clodagh._**

* * *

"Man... this... this is amazing, Eret..." Heather said as the others looked at him while he read it. Eret sighed as he looked at the letter one more time, folding it nonchalantly as he suddenly threw it into one of the torches besides him. This prompted everyone there to gasp with wide eyes as they glared at the flames consuming the paper.

Astrid broke the silence by saying _"Eret, wh... why'd you burn that?!"_

Eret scoffed, saying _"what?... I'm not going..."_

"What... why not?" Hiccup asked. "Your mom s..."

 _"I know what she said, Hiccup, I read it... it's..."_ Eret pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath, exhaling as he said _"look, it is very, very complicated... me and my family, we... we had a bit of a falling out. And it was very nasty."_

Cami chuckled a bit, patting him on the shoulder as she said _"come on... so what if you got in a big fight, fights happen, dude... remember when we started fighting over Heather that time?"_

Heather and Eret both cleared their throats awkwardly at this reminder while Hiccup and Astrid both averted their eyes, prompting Cami to scoff as she tried to elaborate her point. _"What I'm trying to say, is that when we got in that fight, I got a broken nose and Heather got a twisted ankle. But we're all okay now, right?"_

"Hm... more or less..." Heather snarked, before Cami added _"right, and that was only a couple months ago. How long's it been since you and your family got in your fight, stripes?"_

 _"Eight and bit years..."_

 _"See? More than enough time!"_

"Alright, alright, alright... look, I appreciate how, um... how encouraging you're all trying to be... and, well... I do... I do actually want to go, believe it or not. But it's still probably not a good idea..."

"Why?" Hiccup asked in a genuinely curious tone.

 _"If the letter was any indication, last time I even wrote to my family I was still working for Drago. We've not been attacked in decades, but my people still aren't entirely welcoming to dragons... so, I'm fairly certain that being relatively disliked and dropping down on Skullcrusher wouldn't be a good idea..."_

Cami grinned smugly as she pulled out one of her blades and pointed it at Eret, igniting it as she said _"hey, if you need a bodyguard, I'd be more than happy to oblige..."_

Hiccup objected with "Cami, don't you have to do stuff on your island?"

 _"Pft... gods, no. Well, technically yeah..."_ Cami put her sword toward the ground and leaned on it as she added _"after what happened to Stoick, my Mom's been trying to get me ready to lead our island... might as well take a vacation before I take over my tribe..."_

Eret shrugged with a grin, saying _"hm... some sound reasoning there... yeah, alright, C... what d'you say we take Furious and Skullcrusher at first light, then?"_

Cami held out her hand for him to shake, saying _"looking forward to it... ooh, can I bring someone else too?"_

Heather scoffed with her arms crossed as she said "no Cami, I'm not intere..."

 _"Oh, no. Sorry, Heather, I didn't mean you..."_ Cami said nonchalantly, prompting Heather to go wide-eyed in surprise. Eret shrugged, saying _"well, as long as it's only one, I don't see why not... who'd you have in mind, C?"_


	3. Journey

**The Next Morning...**

 ** _"Ugh! RUFF, COME ON! WE GOTTA GO!"_** Cami shouted to the top window of the Thorston house, prompting Ruffnut to stick her head out as she said _"alright, shut up! I'm nearly done packing, okay!"_

 _ **"What do you have to pack?! You literally wear that exact same outfit all the damn time! Hurry up already!"**_ Cami yelled as she went to get on Furious' back, Eret grumbling as he finished packing Skullcrusher's saddle and mounted his dragon.

 _"C, could you not have picked anyone else to come with us...?"_ he whined. _"Like... anyone else at all...?"_

 _"Hey, me and Ruff have actually been hanging out a lot more often since the whole Heather thing. Turns out she's pretty cool... and she's actually not as dumb as that brother of hers..."_

 _"But that's not saying anything, because they're both id... oh..."_ Eret stopped himself as Ruffnut finally came out of her front door, carrying a stuffed up backpack as she struggled to run over to them. Throwing the backpack onto Skullcrusher's saddle, Ruffnut clambered onto Furious' back and sat behind Cami, wrapping her arms around the shorter girl to hold on.

While surprised at first, Cami managed to keep a straight face and a deadpan tone as she said _"uh... Ruff..."_

 _"Yeah...?"_

 _"Please take your hands off my chest..."_

 _"Oh, right... sorry..."_ Ruffnut shuffled her hands down slightly so she was now holding Cami's waist. Hiccup, Astrid and Heather were all there to see them off, with Hiccup saying "so, how long do you reckon you guys'll be gone for?"

 _"I imagine two days at most..."_ Eret answered as he looked in his book of maps to make sure he knew the right way. Cami scoffed, turning to Hiccup and saying _"I'm sure you'll send an armada looking for us if we're not back in that time, ha ha..."_

Hiccup shrugged, before Heather said "Windshear knows your scents. We could probably track you... if we felt like it..."

 _ **"Great. Let's go already!"**_ Ruffnut said excitedly as she tightened her grip on Cami, making the latter's eyes go a little wider. Astrid said _"alright... be careful, you guys..."_

"Yeah... have fun, though..." Hiccup held her hand as he said this to them. Eret nodded, looking at Cami with a smug grin and saying _"so... you sure Furious can keep up with my boy Skullcrusher here?"_

 _"Pft... is that a challenge, Stripes?"_

 ** _"Maybe... but maybe not!"_** Eret hollered out as Skullcrusher took off into the sky, with Cami yelling out a Bog Burglar battle-cry as Furious followed behind with her and Ruffnut hanging on.

"Ha ha... they are so immature... well... if anybody needs me, I'll be feeding Windshear..." Heather had her axe slung on her shoulder as she headed to the dragon stables, leaving Hiccup and Astrid standing together on the edge.

 _"So... you think they'll be okay...?"_ Astrid said with a slightly nervous tone as she looked at Hiccup. He smiled at her, saying "what, are you kidding? Ha ha... Cami can take care of herself just fine... she's the scariest, most dangerous woman in this entire Archipelago... well, besides you..."

Astrid chuckled at this, kissing Hiccup on the lips and saying _"yeah, you're probably right... they'll be fine..."_

As she went back to her house, Hiccup stood still on the edge, watching as Skullcrusher and Furious disappeared into the distance. He had his arms crossed, letting his tone of voice get slightly more nervous as he said "ugh... good luck, you guys..."

* * *

They'd been flying for about three hours when they decided to take a break, landing on a sea stack with Cami feeding both Furious and Skullcrusher and letting them rest for about a half hour. Ruffnut was still sitting snoring on Furious' back, while Eret was standing on the other side of the sea stack looking through a spyglass into the distance.

 _"How's the weather looking?!"_ Cami called over to him, prompting him to call back with _"seems clear enough! This rate, I reckon we'll be there about midday..."_

Cami ran over to where he was, standing next to him as they both stood looking ahead at the sea. After standing like this for about five minutes without saying anything, she decided to break the silence by saying _"so, um... Eret..."_

 _"Yes?"_

 _"I know it's probably hard to talk about or something, but... but I can't help but wonder... well, uh... why did you and your family actually fall out?"_

Eret froze on the spot as she said this, clutching the handle of his sword nervously. _"Um... haven't I said it's complicated?"_

 _"Yeah... you have, but... but it can't be that complicated, right?"_

He thought for a moment, before groaning as he said _"fine... fine, fine, fine... um... well, here's the thing... my family specialise in trading and shipment businesses... and it just happens, we're very honour-based..."_

Ruffnut got up and yawned as Eret spoke, but neither he or Cami paid any attention to her as she walked to the other end of the sea stack to stretch her legs. As she sat on the other edge, she squinted a bit as she saw two small ships in the distance, which were getting closer and closer as they headed straight for them.

Eret continued his story _"so, my old man, Eret XII, tasks me with delivering the shipment to the neighbouring island... this was essentially my initiation to the family business, y'see..."_

 _"Okay..."_ Cami said nonchalantly as she continued listening.

 _"And it all seemed okay at first, and I'd checked the cargo hold several times before we left... when I got to the island, that seemed okay too, the chief was very welcoming and all, but... but he had his men go to the cargo hold to get the goods, but... but it turns out..."_

 _ **"DRAGON TRAPPERS!"**_


	4. Chase

**_"Ruff, look out!"_** Cami tackled Ruffnut to the ground to avoid the small barrage of arrows that flew up at them. Skullcrusher and Furious both jolted awake, with Eret mounting his rumblehorn and saying **_"Cami! Ruff! Let's get out of here! There's too many of them!"_**

Cami grabbed the back of Ruffnut's fur vest and dragged her quickly to Furious, both of them clambering onto the Hobblegrunt's back as she and Skullcrusher jumped off of the sea stack. **_"Hang on, girls!"_**

Everyone held tight onto the dragons as both glided and swooped in circles to dodge the arrows that were being rapidly fired at them. Cami noticed one of the arrows heading straight for Furious' neck, and without a moment of hesitation quickly kicked her leg out straight to block it. **_ZZZIIIPPP!_**

 ** _"GAOW! Oh, son of a... ugh!"_** Cami grunted in agony as she ripped the arrow out of her thigh, since she was wearing her casual shirt and fur vest instead of her protective scale armour. Blood was leaking from the wound and running down her leg, and she was biting her lip so hard to distract from it that tears were forming in her eyes.

 _"Idiot! What'd you do that for?!"_ Ruffnut snapped impatiently as she shoved Cami's shoulder. Cami turned back to her with an angry glare and said _**"if that arrow went into her neck, we'd both be sitting ducks in the middle of the ocean! Now, for Thor's sake, put some pressure on my damn leg before I bleed to death!"**_

 _"You gotta be kidding me! Ugh... fine!"_ Ruffnut groaned as she pressed both her hands over Cami's injury, trying to avoid vomiting as the blood continued soaking past her hand. She quickly gave up on trying, though, keeping her hand pressed to Cami's bloody thigh as she turned her head away and let loose. **_"BLERGH! AAAACH! BLEERGH!"_**

 ** _"Ew! Don't throw up on my dragon, Ruff! Come on!"_** Cami snapped, having almost forgotten that she was injured. She decided to keep from looking, since doing so would most likely result in her doing the same, and having two sick riders was the last thing they needed when under attack.

Ruffnut groaned as she finished, before noticing that the ships were still pursuing them. _"Oh gods... Eret, we gotta get outta here! Like... right now!"_

 _"Don't remind me, Ruffnut!"_ Eret snarked back. _"We've got to damage their ships! Should give us some time to escape..."_

 _"Well, we can't turn back and fight! **Gah!** Watch it, numb-nut!" _Cami groaned aggressively as Ruff's hand slipped slightly and her fingernail dug into the injury. _"Eret, they'll shoot us down the second we get too close! We can't exactly take them by surprise here..."_

 _"Probably not..."_ Ruffnut said nonchalantly as she looked at something behind them. _" **He** might be able to, though..."_

 ** _"Who?"_** Cami and Eret said in-sync as they turned their heads back, both of them going wide-eyes as they saw what Ruffnut was looking at.

The white clouds above slowly became a dark grey, casting a great shadow over the trappers' ships while Furious and Skullcrusher remained in the daylight. A violent blue sparkled out of the clouds, as a large, purple Skrill drove down with great bolts of lightning to strike the ships. _**ZZZZAAAAAAPPP! BOOM! ZZZZAAAAPPP! "Gah!" BOOM! ZZZZZAAAAPPPP! "Abandon ship!"**_

The three watched dumbfounded as the ships exploded into violent sparks of fire and the trappers went screaming overboard into the water, looking up at the Skrill as it flew right over their heads without attacking them.

 _"Holy moly..."_ Cami said as she squinted slightly to look at the Skrill's back. _"Th... there's a guy on there!"_

And indeed there was. The figure wore a hood and cloak, seeming to be textured out of their dragon's discarded scales, that concealed them completely and caused them to almost blend into the body of the Skrill. Their hooded saviour glanced up at them as the dragon swooped back down under Skullcrusher and Furious, flying back to the ship to finish what they had started.

While Skullcrusher and Furious continued flying ahead, Ruffnut, Eret and Cami were still utterly perplexed by what had just happened to the ships, with Eret scratching the back of his head as he said **_"who even was that?!"_**

 _"I don't know..."_ Cami panted. _"But whoever he was, he just gave us a Hel of a head-start... **come on, Furious!** "_


	5. Homecoming

They'd been flying for a few hours when Cami's leg finally stopped bleeding, allowing Riffnut to poorly bandage it with a piece of cloth from the saddle's storage compartment. It still hurt, though, a lot, prompting Cami to groan as she said _"ugh... alright, Eret... how much further?"_

 _"Not that far, now!"_ he called back as the slight mist cleared and allowed a small island to become visible in the distance. _"There she is, ha ha... home, sweet h..."_

They all went wide-eyed as they head the distant **_TWANG!_** of a catapult being fired, followed by the sound of something spinning through the air, which got louder and louder, before...

 ** _"GAH!"_** Ruffnut shrieked out as a bola net suddenly hit her in the back, wrapping around her like a mummy as she frantically tried to escape.

 _"Oh, crap! **RUFF!** "_ Cami called in a panicked tone as Ruffnut tumbled off of Furious' back and plummeted towards the ground. **_"Furi_ _ous, fetch!"_**

The Hobblegrunt obeyed, with Cami holding tight to her dragon as she gracefully dived down after the falling girl. Climbing up to Furious' head, Cami reached out her hand as they very nearly caught up with Ruffnut. **_"Ruff! Take my hand, take... gotcha!"_**

With Cami barely managing to grab ahold of Ruffnut's leg, Furious swiftly pulled up before they were able to land in the water and flew like a swan just over the ocean. Cami hoisted Ruffnut back onto the saddle, using a knife to cut the net as she said _"y'okay, Ruff?"_

 _"Yeah... yeah, I'm fine now... all thanks to you, gorgeous..."_ Ruffnut panted heavily as she looked Cami deep in her confused eyes. After a moment of thinking, Ruffnut puckered her lips and leaned forward slightly, stopping as Cami bluntly said _"Ruff, if you even think about kissing me, I'm gonna toss you back into the ocean..."_

 _"Oh, but I thought... I thought you were a..."_

 _ **"So?! I'm not attracted to you! Ugh... just... whatever, just..."** _Cami went wide-eyed as she looked behind Ruff to see the ship that had shot at them. It was larger than the two trapper ships that attacked them earlier and had a different flag to theirs, but it was clear that the people on it, whoever they were, still had hostile intent.

 _"Right... looks like these ones don't have arrows..."_ Cami grinned. _"Why don't we have a little fun with these folks..?"_

Ruffnut scoffed, mischievously saying _"now we're talking, Camicazi!"_

 ** _"Come on, Furious!"_**

* * *

As the men on the boat prepared to load another net into their catapult, the Hobblegrunt landed on the deck and the two Viking girls stepped off of her. The taller of the two with the helmet held out a double-bladed spear made to resemble a Zippleback while the shorter girl with the messy hair pulled out both of her fire swords and ignited the blades.

 ** _"Alright, nut jobs! Who wants to go first? Huh?!"_** Cami snapped as she waved her sword around, the men standing back while arming themselves with axes and swords they could get their hands on.

 ** _"No! Cami, stop!"_** Eret suddenly called down to get everyone's attention as Skullcrusher also landed on the deck and he stepped off, standing between the pair and the crew with his hands up.

The Captain of the ship squinted for a moment as he looked at them, his eyes widening again as he said "bloody hell... it's Eret XIII..."

 _"Alright, there's been a really big misunderstanding here, lads..."_

 _"If you consider these idiots trying to shoot us outta the sky a misunderstanding, I'd say that was pretty damn huge!"_ Cami snapped, before glancing back at the crew. _"So, these guys dragon trappers or what?"_

 _"No, of course they're not, Cami! Just look at them!"_ Eret snapped, prompting Cami and Ruffnut to look a little longer at the crew. What she had initially thought were poorly-grown beards were actually tribal tattoos on their chins similar to the stripes Eret had on his.

Though he was clearly a good few years younger than anyone on the crew, the majority of them shared a few of his general features, such as his larger nose shape, as well as his unique-sounding accent. It then landed like a ton of bricks on the girls who these people were as they all surrounded Eret while giving him hugs and pats on the back.

 ** _"Ha ha! Welcome 'ome, lad!"_**


	6. Welcoming

Skullcrusher and Furious flew behind the ship as it returned to the island and landed on the dock. Eret, Cami and Ruffnut dismounted the dragons, with Eret going slightly wide-eyed as a familiar voice behind him said "hello... my son..."

After a few seconds of standing frozen with both shock and hesitation, Eret turned around to face the voice worryingly, as Cami and Ruff did the same. _"M... Mum...?"_

Clodagh was a middle-aged woman, just short of three years older than Valka, and had striped tattoos that led from her chin to just under her eyes, as well as slightly-greying black hair that hung loose over both her shoulders. She was lean, lithe and taller than Ruffnut and Cami, though the top of her head stopped at Eret's eye line. Nevertheless, she had a warm, welcoming smile on her slightly tear-stained face as she pulled her son into a hug.

 _"Mum, I... I can't... I can't apologise enough fo..."_

"I know, love, I know... oh, I don't care about that..." she sniffled a bit as she released him from the embrace, tenderly touching the side of his face with her hand as she said "I'm just so glad to have my little lad back..."

She then looked at Ruffnut and Cami, smiling at them as she said "I assume these are friends of yours... ha ha... I welcome you both to our island..."

Cami and Ruffnut both made a slight curtsy out of respect for her, before Cami cleared her throat and put on a surprisingly regal tone as she said _"we are very grateful to have you accommodating us here... this seems to be a very nice place."_

 _"Hm..."_ Eret grinned nervously, slightly more relieved before another voice behind Clodagh cleared her throat loudly to attract some attention. Ruffnut and Cami both tilted their heads so they could look past Eret and Clodagh to see a tall, thin woman standing there. Her hair was not black, but rather a deep dark auburn. Despite a deadpan scowl, her facial structure bore a resemblance to both Eret and a younger Clodagh, but wore much darker fur boots and pelts as well as a long-sleeved black shirt and leggings with a short leather skirt.

"Hello, Eret..."

 _"Ha ha... y'didn't think I forgot about you, did you?!"_ Eret outstretched his arms and went to hug the woman, but she put up her hand nonchalantly to halt him. "Please don't touch me, Eret."

This caused Eret to clear his throat as he took a few steps backwards, casting a silence that even Ruffnut found awkward and uncomfortable. Clearly, Eret and this woman did _not_ have a very good history.

 _"Good to meet ya!"_ Cami suddenly laughed in her usual brash tone, extending a hand to the woman and saying _"I am Ze Great Camicazi. Heir to the Bog Burglar Tribe, master swordswoman and the most cunning and talented burglar in the entire Barbaric Archipelago... and uh... wait, who are you again...?"_

"I am Eret's sister..." the woman said sternly, reluctantly shaking Cami's hand as she added "the name's Eryna..."

* * *

That night, the four of them sat eating dinner around a small, square table on the second floor of Eryna's house. Apparently, Clodagh and Eryna had agreed that he and associates would stay here with Eryna. Or rather, Clodagh had decided this on her own and Eryna did not object.

"So... you're an heiress, then?" Eryna said to Cami with an eyebrow raised, managing to force a grin onto her face as she looked at Eret and added "I'm assuming that's where you're living now, brother? The Bog Burglar Isle?"

 _"Um, no. I, uh... I live on Berk now... Ruff's from there..."_ Eret answered in a slightly nervous tone.

"Berk? Oh, yes... the Hooligans. Home of the so-called dragon conqueror..."

 _"Yep. My good pal Triple H..."_ Cami laughed, prompting Eryna, Ruffnut and Eret to look at her confused. _"What...? Ugh... Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III... obviously..."_

Eret and Ruffnut both sighed in relief as they realised what she meant, before Eret looked back at his sister and said _"so... yeah, I've um... I got an alright gig going on up there... a dragon rider, I've got a seat on the Berk council, and I'm also a part-time handyman..."_

"Ooh, a part-time handyman. How wonderful... I mean that, that really... that really is so, so wonderful..." Eryna said in a tone that seemed proud of her brother, but also sounded somewhat fake. Cami didn't really pay attention to this, until Eryna looked at her and said "of course, I'm not surprised... that's just the latest in a _long_ list of achievements..."

She slapped her brother on the back with a laugh, though the slap seemed to have been harder than usual as it caught Eret off-guard and he audibly yelped when it happened. "I'm just so, so _proud_ of my big brother. Isn't that right, Eret?"

 _"Yeah... ha ha... yeah, that's right..."_ Eret's tone sounded extremely uncomfortable. Nevertheless, he grinned at both Cami and Ruffnut, who glanced towards each other worryingly.

"In fact, girls, if you look behind you, you''ll see that there's an _entire wall_ where we keep all of his awards and medals and everything..." Eryna pointed in between Ruffnut and Cami, prompting them to turn to face the wall. They went slightly-wide eyed with confusion when they saw it, for it was completely barren without a single medal, certificate, tropy or anything posted on it.

Eryna suddenly shot up, pretending to sound shocked as she said "What?! Oh, my goodness! There's nothing there!"

While Cami stared with a brow raised, Eret chuckled a bit as Eryna added "why, they... they must have been stolen! I had better go get Brutus the law keeper about this!"

She ran to the window and stuck her head out, turning to Eret and saying _**"we'll get to the bottom of this soon enough! Oh, Brutus! Brutus, it's Eryna! That's right! Sister of the illustrious Eret XIII, ha ha!"**_

It was clear that there was nobody actually outside for her to shout down to, since it was at the back of the house. Nevertheless, she continued shouting out the window as Cami and Ruffnut watched, utterly perplexed at this. _**"Oh, it's terrible, Brutus! Someone has stolen all of his awards! All of them! It must have been a squadron of several strong, professional thieves, with a very big ship to put them all on!"**_

Cami felt her grip on her fork tighten a bit in frustration as Eryna, making an effort to be audible to them and everyone outside as she said _**"what? What do you mean Eret's never won an award in his entire life?! Well, if that were true, that would mean my brother is a worthless piece of crap who's never accomplished anything! Well, I can assure you, sir, that I'm not going to sit here while you say those slanderous things about my brother! Good day to you!"**_

And so she closed the window extravagantly and dramatically, patting Eret on the shoulder as she said "I promise, brother. I will not rest until every single medal, ribbon, trophy and certificate is back on that wall!"

Theatrically standing like a soldier and saluting Eret, she then ran out of the room and darted down the stairs. Eret laughed as he itched his neck, looking at Cami and Ruffnut as he said _"isn't she great...?"_

 _"Eret, I... I don't think that great is the word I'd use to describe her..."_ Ruffnut said, still feeling uncomfortable after what she had seen. _"I mean, she... she seems kinda.. well... kinda mean... especially to you."_

 _"Mean? Oh, come on, Ruff. She was just having a laugh..."_ Eret chuckled. _"Yeah, she's a little sarcastic, and her shoulder slaps are a bit strenuous, but it's..."_

Cami kept a straight face and tone as she said _"no, Eret... Hiccup is sarcastic... Eryna's not sarcastic, she's a bully. Hel, is there even anyone on this island called Brutus?!"_

Eret sighed, reluctantly saying _"no... not that I know of..."_

They were all silent as Eryna quickly came back in, now wearing a fur cloak and boots and holding a sword. "I'm going down to the tavern to gather up a posse! We'll hunt those thieves down in a jiffy!"

She then put one hand over her heart and pretended to wipe a tear from her eye with the other, saying to Eret "you just keep sitting there making our family proud!"

Ruffnut waited until Eryna had gone out the door again to say _"Eret, are you seriously incapable of realising that your sister is a colossal jerk?!"_

Cami sighed and leaned across to Eret as she said _"look, Eret. I know it's hard to admit some of our family members are bad people, bu..."_

 _"Pah! Bad people!"_ Eret snapped suddenly, taking Cami off-guard. _"Look who's talking! You like to brag about being the most treacherous thief in the Archipelago and you've even beaten me up once! Eryna's never done that to me, and she never would! Far as I'm concerned, we're all worse people than my sister could ever be..."_

Cami opened her mouth to speak, but quickly sat back as Eryna came back into the room, taking off her boots and cloak and putting her sword back on the other wall.

"Well, unfortunately, everyone in the tavern's too drunk to move, so the posse assembling will have to wait til tomorrow..." she snarked as she came to sit back at the table, patting Eret on the back and saying "don't worry, brother... we'll get those achievements back... ha ha..."

Cami and Ruffnut both glared at Eryna with scowls on their faces, but she kept smiling as she said "now... how about I show you girls to your rooms...?"


	7. Midnight

"So... this is the guest room. Wasn't sure how many he'd bring, so I'm afraid I had to improvise..."

Eryna led them down the hallway and opened the door at the end of it. Cami and Ruffnut stood behind her, both going wide-eyed as they saw what the interior of the room looked like. It was small and simple, nice enough, and the single bed was in one corner with a haphazardly stitched fur sleeping bag right next to it.

"I'll let the two of you decide your sleeping arrangements. Night." Eryna closed the door behind her, leaving the pair of them to their own business.

Cami sighed in annoyance with her hands on her hips, chuckling as she glanced at Ruffnut and said _"no offense, Ruff... but if you were literally any other girl I know, I'd be happy to share the bed with you..."_

 _"I take it I'm using the sleep-bag then."_ Ruffnut snarked, being surprised when Cami patted on the back and said _"aw, such a generous soul!"_ as she darted over to the bed and lay back on it with a relaxed exhalation.

Ruffnut groaned at this, quietly sighing as she said _"me and my big, stupid mouth..."_

* * *

It was midnight. Eryna and Eret had both gone to bed about half an hour beforehand, which meant it couldn't have been a more perfect opportunity for Ruffnut and Cami to explore the house with a candle while chatting and gossiping.

 _"Wait, so Hiccup's middle name is actually Horrendous?!"_ Ruffnut was trying to keep herself from breaking down with laughing as she and Cami walked together.

 _"You better believe it! And I don't even think Astrid knows... **ah ha ha ha!** "_

 _"Shh! Shh!"_ They were both trying to stay quiet so they didn't wake up Eret or his sister, but still playfully giggled like excited young children as they went down the stairs and out of the house to where Furious and Skullcrusher were sleeping next to the front step.

The two dragons woke up to greet them, but still laid down as they were still tired. Cami sat next to Furious on the ground and hugged her dragon's head, while Ruffnut knelt down next to Skullcrusher and stroked under his chin. _"So... what about Eret's sister...?"_

 _"What's left to say... ha ha...?"_ Cami chortled, motioning her eyes up to the house. _"Really needs somebody to bend her down and yank that big stick out of her a..."_

"Not heavy sleepers, are you?" a voice prompted them both to jolt a bit, before they turned to see Clodagh standing there holding a torch. They calmed down a bit, before she said "so... I take it you're both friends of the chief dragon trainer on Berk..."

 _"Hm... that's right..."_ Cami got up a bit. After a brief moment of silence where she and Ruffnut looked at one another, they both turned back to Clodagh and Cami cleared her throat. _"So, uh... must be nice having your son back, huh...?"_

"It is, dear... it is indeed... we used to be so close, all of us... he always wanted to impress his father. Ha ha... live up to the family name, and all, but... but, um..."

 _"He screwed up..."_ Ruffnut said nonchalantly.

"Well... yes, I suppose he did..." Clodagh clearly let in a more sombre tone to her voice, prompting Cami to hit Ruffnut on the shoulder and shoot a brief glare at her. Cami then looked at Clodagh, saying _"what Ruff means is the whole incident Eret had... wasn't it a shipment gone wrong or something like that...?"_

"Yes, it... it was wild dragons..." Clodagh explained. "Somehow, they... they broke into the cargo hold of his ship and destroyed all the goods, and... and when he opened it to show the chief of that tribe what he had to sell, they all broke out and... and they..."

She put her hand to her face since she was unable to even finish her sentence. Ruffnut and Cami both glanced worryingly at each other, before looking back at Clodagh as she said "it very nearly caused a war to break out, ha ha... they got over it, luckily, but my husband was still anything but happy about it..."

* * *

 _"Father, I assure you! I checked it multiple times, there was no way they could ha..."_

 ** _"Then how do you explain them being there, boy?!"_**

 _"I... I don't know, but it wasn't my f..."_

 ** _"Do you not realise what you have done?!"_**

 _"Of course I do! But it wasn't m..."_

 ** _"You have shamed our family name! You are no son of Eret!"_**

* * *

"After that, Eret joined those dragon trappers... then he found you... and he seems happy with you lot..."

 _"Yeah... sure seems like it..."_ Cami chuckled a bit.

"It was dragons that tore my family apart, girls..." Clodagh's more solemn tone softened a bit as she gently petted Skullcrusher's face. "Hm... I suppose it's only poetic that these dragons be what brought it back together again..."

 _"Well, poetic, ironic, whatever... yeah..."_ Ruffnut scratched the back of her head awkwardly. Clodagh then straightened up, grabbing her torch and saying "well... I suppose I ought to bid you both goodnight..."

 _"Oh, yeah. Sure..."_ Cami nodded as she and Ruffnut both nodded silently yet respectfully. Clodagh then walked through the sleeping village back to her house, while Ruffnut yawned audibly.

 _"Well... don't know about you, Cami, but... but I'm beat..."_

 _"Pft... you're beat... I've got an arrow-hole in my leg, how do you think I feel...?"_ Cami snarked, prompting them both to laugh again. As they went back inside the house, Cami said _"just thought I'd let you know, Ruff... I normally snore when I'm not feeling so good... problem is, I can't really tell when I feel that way..."_

 _"It's okay... sometimes, I sleepwalk and take my clothes off while I do it..."_

 _"Ugh, gods... alright, well, I'll burn that bridge if we get to it..."_


	8. Eryna

The next morning, Ruffnut and Cami woke up and walked out of the house, both of them going wide-eyed as they saw Eryna sitting cross-legged in front of the still sleeping Skullcrusher and Furious. She seemed calm enough, gently stroking Furious' nose while cooing her voice in a friendly, lullaby-like tone.

Cami looked at Ruffnut for an opinion, only for her to shrug before they both looked back at Eryna as Cami said _"uh... hey, Eret's sister, wh... what are you uh..."_

 _ **"What are you doing to our dragons?!"**_ Ruffnut suddenly snapped.

"Ah, top of the morning t'you, girls!" Eryna stood up and straightened the creases on her clothes. "Y'slept well, I hope..."

She was notably less hostile than she had been the night before, sounding almost as excitable as Cami had been that day she first visited Berk. Simply deciding to play along rather than cause a fuss, Cami itched the back of her own neck and said _"um... yeah, we... we slept fine..."_

"Excellent. Well, Eret's with Mum at the Great Hall, so I've got the job of entertaining you both for the day. Was thinking maybe the three of us could have some girl-on-girl bonding time..."

 _"Look, I'm flattered, but you're a little on the petite side for my taste..."_ Ruffnut tried to sound disappointed as she said this, prompting Cami to roll her eyes as she muttered _"for Thor's sake, Ruff, she wasn't talking about that..."_

Eryna chuckled awkwardly, before saying "I was _actually_ thinking more of a quick fishing trip. I've got a boat ready, if either of you girls are interested..."

* * *

Within half an hour, the three of them were in a small fishing boat about a mile away from the island. Ruffnut and Cami sat silently on one side while Eryna sat opposite them on the other end of the boat. She cleared her throat, trying her best to sound casual as she said "so... Eret seems awfully fond of you and your Berkian friends..."

 _"Doesn't seem too fond of you, though..."_ Cami snarked as she crossed her arms, prompting Eryna to smirk a bit in acknowledgement.

"Well... Eret and I go back a long time, Cami... being siblings, and all..."

 _"Sure, sure... well, I'm an only child myself, but I'm pretty sure siblings don't normally treat each other the way you treated him last night..."_

"Hm... someone's bitter, I see..."

 _ **"Oh, Brutus! My brother is a worthless piece of crap!"**_ Cami tried her best to mimic Eryna's accent, something that amused both Ruffnut and Eryna herself.

"Well, I suppose you've got me there, Cami. But it's not _quite_ as simple as that, I'm afraid."

 _"Really? How so...?"_ Cami seemed genuinely curious this time, prompting Eryna to grin as she began her story.

"When we were children, Eret and me... hm, he was basically my hero... y'know, the whole older brother thing."

 _"Okay..."_

"I looked up to him like an idol. Made me laugh, stood up for me, carried me when I was tired... hm... he was my best friend..."

 _"I can relate..._ " Cami seemed less hostile as she said this with a grin, reminiscing to herself about what she and Hiccup were like back in their childhood. It then occurred to Cami that her friendship with Hiccup back then wasn't any different to what it was now, prompting her to look at Eryna and say _"what changed between you two, then?"_

"Well... _he_ was the favourite... Mum and Dad's, that is... unspoken, of course, but... but incredibly obvious..." Eryna sighed a bit. "Though nothing of it at first... settling for second, and all... wasn't until we were about fourteen, maybe fifteen but it's not really important, that... that I just... _asked_ Mum who the favourite was..."

 _"Wait, you asked?"_ Cami went slightly wide-eyed. _"Pretty risky, wasn't it?"_

"Yes... I suppose it was, actually, ha ha... don't even know why I asked, really, but... but I guess I've always been quite the gambler..." Eryna briefly hesitated as she slightly tightened her grip on the oar she was holding. "Anyway... I asked her, and... she tried to dance around the question, as you do... but then Eret got the shipping job."

Ruffnut butted in again, saying _"the one with the wild dragons, right?"_

Eryna let out a slightly bitter chortle as she said "oh, yes. That's the one... and when Dad made the formal announcement to the rest of the family, I... I doubt I'll ever truly forget what he said to Eret that day."

* * *

 _ **"I am truly proud to give you this tremendous honour, my boy. You're the future of the Eret lineage, lad. As Eret XII, I have done many proud, great things, but what is, and will be my greatest creation... is you."**_

* * *

"Eret was my brother, and I loved him more than anything or anyone in the world." Eryna seemed almost like she was about to cry as she looked down at the floor of the boat and added "but he'd done nothing to deserve being called that... greatest creation... Dad had no reason to single him out... call one of us better than the other... not to mention Eret screwed it up anyway, like I ma... like most of us knew he would."

 _"Ugh... man, that's harsh..."_ Ruffnut scratched the back of her own head awkwardly as Cami sighed. Eryna looked back up at them as she said "so, you see, Cami... you can't really make true judgement when you only see half the picture..."

 _"Well, yeah... I mean, I guess we did kinda misjudge you, Eryna."_ Cami chuckled. _"Cause, I know family can be a pretty tough thing to deal with."_

 _"Yeah, take Dagur back home, for instance..."_ Ruffnut suddenly cut in. _"Killed our friend Heather's parents and she went crazy trying to hunt him down and stuff, then it turned out that she was Dagur's sister..."_

"That's fascinating..." Eryna was back to her bubbly guise again as she said "well, ha ha... I don't envy that Heather girl, that's for sure."

 _"Well, you can't make a true judgement if you see only half the picture, right?"_ Cami said with a brow raised, prompting the three of them to laugh. Eryna then cleared her throat, saying "well, we've not even bothered trying to catch anything, but what d'you girls say we head back to the village?"


	9. Riding

About an hour after returning to the island, Cami decided to give Eryna a more formal introduction to Furious, and was now wearing her dragon-scale body suit for the occassion. The Hobblegrunt was awake now and was clearly excited to see her owner and their new friend, so Cami had to stand between her and Eryna for a few moments until she could pacify her dragon a little bit.

 _"Alright, come over here... it's pretty easy..."_ Cami extended a hand to Eryna just as Hiccup had once done with her and Toothless, Eryna slowly and carefully taking it as she took a deep breath and said "okay... okay, I'm ready..."

 _"Great..."_ Cami put her hand over Eryna's and pushed hers slowly towards Furious' face, whispering quiet, encouraging things to them both as Eryna closed her eyes nervously. _"Alright, that's it... not too close, though... there you go... let her come to you... almost there..."_

Finally, Furious pushed her face forward a bit, allowing Eryna's hand to press firmly on her nose. Ernya opened one eye, and then the other, exhaling a bit as she said "hoo... well... wow, this is really exciting... ha ha..."

 _"Yeah, just keep calm, though..."_ Cami said quickly, slowly releasing Eryna and backing away to let her pet Furious' nose on her own. Eryna eventually got onto her knees, taking her hand from the dragon's face and reaching her arms around the dragons neck to embrace her, with the Hobblegrunt lowly grumbling as she used her wings to return it.

Eryna nearly tripped backwards as Furious released her, panting with a laugh as she brushed her much messier hair out of her eyes. "Ha ha... ooh, that... that's incredible, it... it really was wonderful... ha ha..."

Cami smirked, saying _"great... now get on her back..."_

"I'm sorry, what?"

* * *

Cami was sitting behind Eryna on Furious' saddle as the dragon flew around the outskirts of the island. Eryna was clearly uneasy as she held on to the handlebars at the front of the saddle while panting heavily and trying not to look down. "Alright... alright, what do I do, then?"

 _"Just move the handlebars... Furious'll do half the work..."_ Cami said as she nonchalantly leaned back on Furious. Eryna obliged, tilting the left handlebar slightly down and prompting Furious to glide lower.

"Ooh! Oh, th... that went alright..." Eryna then decided to try the right handlebar, prompting Furious to head more towards the right. Eryna then pulled both handlebars towards herself, prompting Furious to stick her head up as she flew higher into the air.

"Right. I think you're getting the hang of it now..." Cami patted Eryna on the back, prompting the latter to giggle nervously as she said "well, n-not really. I... I-I-I just think I need a little more practice..."

 _"Well, I believe in learning on the job... speaking of which..."_ Cami stood up on Furious' back, which Eryna go wide-eyed as she noticed it. "Wait, wh... what are you doing?"

 _"Relax. I'll be right beside you all the way! **YEEEEEEEEEEE-HOOOOOO!** "_ Cami suddenly jumped over Eryna's head, falling past Furious and plummeting towards the ground. **"Oh m... CAMI! Cami, are you insane?!"**

 _ **"You'd better believe it! Ha ha ha HAAA!"**_ When she was about 30ft from the ground, Cami pressed the button on her chest armour that caused the gliding wings to flip out from her backpack, grabbing the handles on either side and manoeuvring them so that she flew up just before hitting the ground.

 _ **"YEAH! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"**_ her holler echoed throughout the air as she flew up, her hair blowing in the wind behind her like a series of large golden flames. This was the first time she had properly tried the flight suit in practice, and it was even better than she ever imagined it being, or than Hiccup had ever told her of the experience.

Even when she was merely watching, Eryna was completely in awe of this, so much that she almost led Furious directly into a tree, though she managed to manoeuvre the Hobblegrunt out of the way just in time. She kept her eyes focused ahead, while Cami casually glided next to her.

 _"So, dragon rider... how's it going...?"_ she snarked, prompting Eryna to look at her with a smirk. "Quite well, all things considered... **GAH!** "

 _ **"Ooh, look out!"**_ Cami shouted as out as she lowered her wings slightly and manoeuvred herself so that she landed on Furious' neck, managing to prevent the dragon from flying straight into a large rocky mountainside. Eryna was clearly still in shock after nearly colliding into the wall, nervously keeping a loose grip on the handlebars as she said "I... I think you ought to take the handlebars back..."

"Yeah... I think so too, ha ha..." Cami slid down the back of Furious' neck and sat at the front with Eryna holding on from behind. They were both laughing slightly nervously after their experience, before Cami patted Furious' side. _"Ha ha... sorry for giving you a scare there, girl..."_

Furious glanced back to face her master with a happy little growl, prompting Eryna to let out a lighthearted little scoff. "You two are close then, I see..."

 _"Well, yeah... I mean... well, sure we are..."_ Cami said as she hugged Furious' neck tightly and she kissed the dragon's cheek. _"I'd never let **anything** happen to my best friend, would I, Furious?"_

The Hobblegrunt grumbled in a tone that seemed to protest, prompting Cami to scoff with an eye-roll as she said _"okay, **other** than that time I pulled your tooth out, ha ha..."_

* * *

After about half an hour of flying around the island, they landed in front of Eryna's house, seeing Eret waiting at the front of the house. _"Ah... you lot had fun up there, I hope..."_

"Oh yes. Definitely..." Eryna got off first and Cami climbed down Furious' neck as they stood together. "I must say, brother. I can see why you all enjoying that flying malarkey so much."

 _"Well, that's excellent, sis."_ Eryna had his hands on his hips as he said this, a chuckle in his tone as he said _"Mum was hoping this'd be a better hobby for you than all those Maces and Talons tournaments... ha ha..."_

Cami went slightly wide-eyed at this, glancing at Eryna as the latter chuckled awkwardly, though there was still a slight hint of bitterness in her tone as she said "well, let... let's hope so... ha ha..."

 _"What about you, C...?"_ he said to Cami. _"I'm assuming you're finally enjoying yourself here..."_

 _"Well. Let's just say your sister and I've come to a greater understanding of one another..."_ Cami laughed as she patted Eret on the back. _"Well. I'll leave you folks to it. I'm gonna go find Ruff..."_

"She's in the house, last I checked..." Eryna said in a soft tone, prompting Cami to nod as she went into the house and closed the door behind her. Barely five seconds had passed before Eryna suddenly shrunk her smile back into an annoyed scowl, exhaling as she said "ugh... finally... honestly, I thought she'd never leave..."

Eret was surprised by this, turning to face his sister as he said "wait... wh... what are you on about, I... I thought you all got along now..."

 **"Pah, you wish!"** she scoffed as she turned and walked away from him. "Look, I tried to be friendly to them, Eret, I really did! But... well... to be honest, Cami, she just... I just don't think she likes me all that much. And she's apparently not a fan of Mum, either."

* * *

 _ **"So... turns out Eryna likes riding dragons, Ruff!"**_ Cami called up to Ruffnut as she went into the house and up the stairs. Her head pricked up as she heard the sound of shuffling and things being thrown around, prompting her to run upstairs to the slightly ajar door of Eryna's bedroom. _**"Ruff! Ruff, what are you doing?"**_

 _"Oh hey... what's up?"_ Ruffnut turned from the drawers and boxes she was raiding. _"Just snooping around."_

 _ **"Snooping?! Are you actually serious right now?!"**_ Cami darted over and grabbed one side of the drawer Ruffnut was holding, trying to pull it out of Ruffnut's hands. _**"You seriously wanna make her mad at us again?"**_

 _"Relax. I'll put it back. She won't even notice..."_ Ruffnut seemed calm, but began tugging more aggressively on the end she was holding to get it away from Cami. _"Come on... I'm an expert..."_

 _ **"You're not an expert, you're an imbecile!"**_ Cami tightened her grip on it and pulled it even harder. _**"I'm a Bog Burglar, you halfwit! Even I know this is a stupid idea. Now give it over!"**_

 _"You give it over!"_

 ** _"No, you give it over!"_**

 _"No, you!"_

 ** _"You!"_**

 _"No, y- **AAAAAH!** "_ Ruffnut suddenly tripped on an upturned floor board behind her, causing her to loosen her grip in one hand as the drawer tilted down and an assortment of pens and envelopes spilled and clattered onto the floor.

 _ **"Ugh! You idiot!"**_ Cami shoved Ruffnut aggressively, before getting down onto her knees to try picking everything up. _**"Well, don't just stand there like a moron, Ruff! Help me clean this up before they come back!"**_

 _"Uh... oh, right! Sorry..."_ Ruffnut snapped out of her imaginary world as she got down next to Cami and they frantically started putting everything back. Ruffnut picked up a small envelope, holding it upside down so all the letters in it came out the opening and landed on the floor, prompting her to try picking them all up again. _"Oh, son of a bi... uh... Cami...?"_

 _ **"Ugh... what now?!"**_ Cami snapped as she looked back at Ruffnut, who was staring silently at the letter she had picked up, her eyes wide as she saw what it was saying. _"Uh... you might wanna take a look at this..."_

Cami scoffed with an eye roll as she snatched the letter out of Ruffnut's hand to read it herself. Within about five seconds, her eyes were wide and her mouth was hanging open.

 _"Oh... oh Gods... Ruff, we..."_ she grabbed Ruffnut's shoulder to pull her around so they were face to face. _"We gotta find Eret... now!"_


	10. Behind

**_To the employer of the Dragon Trappers,_**

 ** _Just a quick update for you. My son, Eret XIII, has finally returned from his exploits in the Barbaric Archipelago. Those same exploits that resulted in the defeat of one Drago Bludvist, I might add._**

 ** _Anyway, just try to stay as close to our island as possible. Once I've learned how to ride one of the scaly beasts he's brought here with him, I'm going to convince him to come out flying with me. I'll lead him to your location and you can catch him there. He'll be none the wiser, I can assure you of that._**

 ** _In case his head does not satisfy the debts, I have taken the liberty of throwing in his pet Rumblehorn and one Hobblegrunt. Hopefully, the pair of them will increase the price we discussed._**

 ** _Though I sincerely hope that the transaction will go down as quickly as possible, as I've a burial to attend tomorrow morning._**

 ** _With regards -_ _Clodagh._**

* * *

Eret was clearly frozen with both shock, betrayal and agony etched onto his face as he read the letter they passed him. He almost looked like he was going to let a tear come down his face, but he managed to wipe it away before it could. Ruffnut was standing in the doorway of the house and Cami was standing next to Eret, the two girls looking at each other as they wondered what the rest of his reaction was going to be.

Cami sighed, being the first to break the silence as she said _"Eret, I... I'm so sorry..."_

 _"Yeah... I am too..."_ he said in a solemn tone as he folded the letter. He suddenly turned to them both with a scowl on his face, snapping **_"sorry that you'd both go to such stupid lengths to come between me and my family!"_**

 _"What?!"_ Cami snapped back, before adding _"Eret, it's the truth! We literally just found this in your sister's room!"_

 ** _"Wait a minute, my sister's room?! What were y'doing in my sister's room?!"_**

 _"Ugh! Ruff was being a moron, but it doesn't matter. Look, we gotta get Eryna and see how much she knows about this!"_

Ruffnut nodded along to Cami's words, before her head twitched slightly as she heard some clattering sounds from behind her. As Eret and Cami continued arguing, she went into the house to see where the noises were coming from.

 ** _"Eryna won't know anything, because she's not involved in this! And neither is my Mum!"_**

 _"It's right here in writing, you imbecile!"_

 _ **"Not hers! You think I don't know what my own mother's handwriting looks like, Cami?! I read the invitation from her two days ago, for goodness' sake! Good that I burned the damned thing so you didn't have anything to copy off of!"**_

 _"Wait, copy off of? You think **I** wrote this?!"_

 ** _"Look, it's crystal clear you and Ruff haven't enjoyed a minute of this trip since the moment we got here... I've seen the signs."_**

 _"Not enjoyed a... I just took your sister flying! Why wouldn't I enjoy that?! Alright, the only reason I didn't like your sister at first is because you were obviously uncomfortable!"_

 ** _"Yeah, that's how this works, Cami! Family is uncomfortable! Family hurts! Family scars! But you stand by it_** ** _, no matter what! And if you can't understand that..."_**

 _"I do understand that, Eret!"_

 _ **"You don't! I know you don't and don't even bother denying it... cause you... because y'know what, Cami... I see right through you! You're jealous!"**_

 _"Jealous?!"_

 _ **"Yes. Of me! You thought this was going to be like your first visit to Berk where everyone has to drop their crap just to be in the presence of Ze Great Camicazi! But you're angry that, oh no, someone other than you can be the centre of attention on this island, because outside the Archipelago nobody cares about some shaggy-haired Bog Burgling brat!"**_

Cami had her fists clenched and her lips were sealed into a scowl as a few insulted, hurt tears came down her face. _"W... why you... you arrogant, selfish, ungrateful **PRICK!** "_

She shoved him hard with both hands, causing him to fall backwards as she stood over him. _ **"You don't wanna listen to me, fine! You wanna get yourself killed, fine! I don't care anymore! The only reason you're the centre of attention on this island is because you're such a failure, anyway!"**_

 ** _"Well if that's how you feel, Cami, then you and Ruff_** **_can both leave!"_** Eret snapped back. **_"D'you really think we brought two dragons just because Skullcrusher couldn't carry three of us?!"_**

 ** _"Fine! We will!"_** Cami snarled as she turned away and went back to the house.

* * *

 _ **"Ugh! I can't believe he could be such a thick-headed fool!"**_ Cami snapped with a bubbling fury as she came into the house and slammed the door shut behind her, going wide-eyed at what she saw in front of her. **_"Oh my... Ruff!"_**

 _ **"Hmm!"**_ Ruffnut was tied to her chair by her hands and legs, with a red cloth wrapped around the lower half of her face to gag her mouth. She was tugging and jumping to try and escape, with her muffled screams being barely intelligible through the gag.

A gasp was heard as Eryna came in through the back door, seeing Cami standing there in front of the tied up Ruffnut. "Good grief! What's going on here?!"

Eryna was holding a metal pipe in her hands, her hair and clothes were slightly messier and her face had a bruise on one side and a faint claw mark on the other. Cami paid no notice to these details, instead kneeling down to Ruffnut's level as she said _"Eryna, your Mom's nuts..."_

"What?!"

"I'll explain in a minute... just help me get her free, okay?" Cami began trying to untie the incredibly tight knots Ruffnut's assailant had tied her in, frantically saying _"Ruff... Ruff, who did... Eret's Mom did this to you, didn't she... Ruff... Ruff, where is she now?!"_

 _ **"Mm-hmm-oom!"**_ Ruffnut's voice was muffled by the cloth, but she was clearly terrified as her body got more fidgety and her eyes became wider and more tearful. She was also shaking her head as if she were denying what Cami had said a moment before.

 _"What?"_

 _ **"Mm... hmm... oom!"**_

 _"Oh, for gods' sake..."_ Cami then took the liberty of grabbing the cloth Ruffnut was gagged with and pulling it off of her mouth so she could speak. Or rather, shriek.

 ** _"BEHIND YOU!"_**

 _"Huh...?"_ Cami glanced her head around to see what Ruffnut was talking about. _"Oh, sh..."_

 _ **THWACK!**_


	11. Rat

_"Ugh... gods... ow..."_ Cami woke up with a stinging agony that went from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. She tensed as she touched the cut on her left temple where the pipe had hit her, which was leaking a thin line of blood down her left cheek to the left side of her neck. Once her vision cleared, she realised that she was in a cage just tall enough for her to stand up it.

It was placed on the rocks at the edge of a tide pool, with the waves lightly scraping the side of the rock. She sighed as she slumped against the back of the cage, trying her best not to touch her injured head before she remembered something else. _**"Oh, gods! Ruff!"**_

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about her." a voice snarked from the shadows, Cami squinting a bit to see Eryna stepping into the light. "Ruff's stored in a... well, a _saf_ e place, for lack of a better word... it's yourself you should be worried about."

 _ **"Eryna? Oh, come on, I thought you were cool, for Thor's sake! You're in cahoots with your mom?!"**_

"Cahoots? Oh, good grief, no... ha ha... did you not see the invitation letter she sent...?" Eryna chuckled to herself. "See, I take after my father in many ways, Cami... one's my handwriting. Look, Mum doesn't know about any of this. All I needed was her name... for... _legitimacy_..."

 _"To sell out your own brother?! What the Hel is wrong with you?!"_

"Pah! Don't treat me like the bad guy here, Cami! I told you everything!" Eryna snapped as she clenched one of her fists. "You're an only child, I know you are! Because you have no idea what it's like to not be the favourite!

 _"Not be the favou... oh, **are you frickin' kidding me!** Is that what you're doing this for?!"_

"Of course not. Well, I suppose it _partially_ is... ha ha... but you read about the debts, didn't you...?"

 _"Uh-huh..."_ Cami shrugged, keeping a scowl on her face but sneaking in a bitter laugh as she said _"guess you weren't kidding when you said you were quite the gambler, huh?"_

"Ah ha ha ha... oh, clever girl!" Eryna clapped her hands quickly and theatrically. "So... you can see where the story went from there, can't you?"

 _"Well... I'm guessing you played too much Maces and Talons, got mixed up with the dragon hunters. Then you convinced Eret to go work for them to pay it all off?"_

"Convinced? Pah..." Eryna went slightly closer to the cell. "Who do you think lured those wild dragons into that cargo hatch in the first place?"

Cami was slightly wide-eyed at this, before scoffing as she said _"you? Come on... I saw y'with Furious today, you wouldn't have known the first thing about controlling dragons to do stuff like that..."_

"The trappers know this famous bloke, I mean... you Archipelago dwellers would never have heard of him, but... but he's well-known here..." Eryna said, before clearing her throat as she realised she was getting off-track. "Anyway... so this bloke has quite the hefty supply of Deathgripper venom, and I got a free sample from them. It's apparently even more effective than that Alpha dragon your peg-leg friend has on Berk, and I have to admit... the plan worked like a dream. He fell into their hands like nobody's business... and now I'll do it again, just as easy."

 _"He changed. If you hand Eret over to the Dragon Hunters, he'll never work for them!"_

"They don't want his services this. They want his _dragon_ , and they want his _head_. Both of which will pay generously enough for me to repay my gambling debts. And as far as I'm concerned, Cami... people are _incapable_ of change... Eret was always a weak, cowardly fool. His Rumblehorn didn't give him those things..."

Eryna glanced back in the direction of the village as she itched the back of her neck. "So... assuming you know what the plan is... I hope you don't mind if _I'm_ the one riding Furious..."

 _"You... you r... y... y-you Thor-forsaken **RAT!** "_ Cami lunged to attack onto to be stopped by the bars of the cell. _**"If you lay a finger on Furious, when I get outta here, I'm gonna..."**_

"Out of there? Ah ha ha ha... whoever said you were getting out of there?"

 _"You can't keep a Bog Burglar under lock and key! You can't!"_

"Hm... well..." Eryna pouted sarcastically as she pretended to contemplate. "I suppose we'll just have to see what the tide has to say about that..."

 _ **"Wait, the ti... the tide?!"**_ Cami went wide-eyed as she looked at her feet, noticing the water had already risen a notable amount during their conversation alone. _"Oh, you sneaky little..."_

"Y'know, I must say... as tragic as this ending for you is... I did like meeting you, Cami. Honest." Eryna smirked in a surprisingly genuine tone as she climbed higher up the rock, waving back as she added "and I do hope, all deaths aside, that you enjoyed your stay here as well... goodbye, Camicazi."

 _ **"You rat! You thieving, no-good, treacherous RAT!"**_


	12. Changed

"Well... looks like someone's had a bad day..." Clodagh snarked as she sat next to Eret at the table in the centre of the tavern.

 _"Yeah... ha ha... ugh... y'alright, Mum...?"_

"I am... but... I did hear the little spat you got in to with your friends..."

 _"Ugh. You heard that?"_

"Pft... I'm surprised the whole village didn't hear it, son."

 _"Oh... well, I... I guess I'll have to probably be sticking about here a little while longer, Mum..."_ Eret sighed. _"Cami seemed awful angry with me, and Ruff's about as sharp as a brick so she'll just go along with anything Cami says... I've really screwed it up, I think..."_

Clodagh chuckled, patting him softly on the back as she said "ah, my boy... you're always so over reactive to little things like this..."

 _"Over reactive? What d'you mean...?"_

"Eret, your friendship with those girls didn't happen overnight. It's already took months of trust-building... one fight's not going to destroy all that."

 _"Worked with Dad, didn't it...?"_

"Eret, your father knew he made a lot of mistakes... but there's two things he regrets above all else. One is disowning you, and the other is neglecting your s..."

"Alright, you two...?" Eryna suddenly interrupted as she sat between them, patting Eret on the back as she added "so... I take it you screwed things up with the girls, then?"

 _"Well, uh... I don't th... ugh... yeah..."_ Eret said in a self-loathing tone. _"I probably shouldn't even have brought them here... would have been better if I'd just come alone..."_

"Oh, I don't know about that... I'm sure they'll get over it." Eryna had a smirk on her face, putting her hand on her chin as she pretended to think. "Y'know what, Eret... how about we go for a flight, eh...?"

 _"A flight? Well... if you want to, I won't stop you, but... I don't think Skullcrusher is used to you yet, Eryna."_

"Oh, that's fine. I'll use Furious. Cami and I have come to... to an _understanding_ , let's say, so I doubt she'll mind me borrowing her."

 _"Sis, I... I don't know..."_

"Oh, come on, brother!" she said in an encouraging tone as she took one of his hands with both of her own, leaving Clodagh at the table as they left the tavern. "This'll make you feel better... I promise."

* * *

 _"Ugh... I... I'm coming, guys y... you c... you can't keep a Bog Bur... under lock and... and key! **GAAAH!** "_ Cami hollered out as she threw a sizeable rock down onto the lock of the cage for at least the hundredth time, her eyes widening with a grin as she heard a loud _**CRACK!**_ from the contact.

 _"Yes! Yes, I... aw, man..."_ she froze on the spot, looking down in disappointment at the shattered pile of rubble lying next to the completely unscathed rock. _"Oh, y... you son of a... a... **GGGGRRRRRAAAAGGGHHH! A-HOW! Ooh...** "_

She bit her lip and clutched her aching foot as she collapsed onto her back, having just tried in vain to kick the door open in her frustration. _"Ugh! I am gonna kill her!"_

Eryna had left about an hour before, and in that time Cami could already tell that the water was getting closer to where her cage was placed on the rocks. Within the next half hour it was bound to reach her cell at this rate, and within an hour she'd either be drowned right here or swept away by the tide. Either way, she was done for.

 ** _"Well, that looks like an awfully uncomfortable situation..."_** a soft, sophisticated voice said to break the silence, prompting Cami to shoot up quicker than a Speed Stinger. _"What? Who's th... oh... ha ha... hello again..."_

She recognised hooded cloak the man was wearing, the one that was made of a Skrill's discarded scales. This was the same hidden individual that saved them from the trappers before they arrived at the island. _"Hm... I take it my friends and I have a stalker now, huh?"_

 ** _"I'd argue I'm more of a guardian than a stalker. So, tell me, my dear... what's happened to you all since the last time I saw you?"_**

 _"I'd say it was complicated, but it's probably not, ha ha... turns out Eret's crazy sister is about to hand him over to the Dragon Trappers..."_ Cami rolled her eyes in annoyance. _"Again..."_

 ** _"A treacherous sibling, you say? Hm... well, I do have some experience in that sort of thing... and I'm assuming that's why you're locked up here..."_**

 _"Uh-huh..."_ Cami snarked. _"I was trying to tell him about what she was doing, but being the boar-headed jerk that he is, he wouldn't listen to me..."_

The man in the shadows chuckled, before saying **_"they say there are two ways to be fooled, child. One is to believe what isn't true, the other is to refuse to believe what is... from the sound of things, your friend has done both..."_**

 _"Ugh... please don't tell me you're about to go raving on about Maces and Talons... I got enough of a lecture about that crap from the sister..."_ Cami groaned as she sat with her back facing the man. _"Besides_ , _I guess I can't really blame Eret for being ignorant, right? Hm... maybe Eryna's right... some people are just incapable of change..."_

 ** _"I thought myself incapable of change once..."_** the man said as he removed his hood and stepped out of the shadows, causing Cami to go wide-eyed as the light revealed the scarred and badly-burned left side of his face and his white, blinded left eye. **_"Your good friend Hiccup Haddock taught me otherwise..."_**

 _"Wait... you know Hiccup?!"_ Cami raised an eyebrow at this. _"Wh... wait, who... who the Hel are you?"_

 ** _"I'm the man who's going to get you out of here..."_** the scarred man drew a metal dagger from his belt and held it upwards. Once the clouds in the distance began to glow a bright blue, Cami made sure that she wasn't near or touching the metal bars of her cell, cowering in the middle of it as a blue lightning bold struck the lock with an sparkling **_ZZZZZAAAAAP!_**

She opened her eyes and got out of the now mangled and melted cell, seeing the scarred man now sitting on the back of the Skrill that had destroyed it. He extended a hand to her with a grin.

 **" _Shall we?"_**


	13. Pleasure

Skullcrusher and Furious flew casually above the ocean, Eret on the Rumblehorn's back while Eryna sat on the Hobblegrunt's. Eryna noticed that her brother still had a straight, reluctant and regretful look on his face, no doubt still wracked with guilt after the argument he'd had with Cami.

"Y'alright, brother...?"

Eret cleared his throat, trying his best to grin as he said _"yeah, I... I'm fine, just... just need to clear my head... to be honest, sis, you were probably right about this flight making me feel better..."_

"Oh, I'm sure I am... ha ha... _say_... what's that down there...?" Eryna pretended to look concerned as she pointed to the ship floating on the ocean.

 ** _ZZZIIIPPP!_** Skullcrusher grunted in agony as the projectile pierced an exposed part of his flesh, prompting him to nosedive lifelessly towards the ship with Eret struggling to hold onto him. _**"SKULLCRUSHER! NO!"**_

CRASH! The Rumblehorn landed hard on the deck of the ship with the trappers immediately throwing a net to restrain his unconscious body. Eret clambered out of the net and drew both his swords. _"Come on, then! Let's see what you... **UGH!** "_

Eret landed face-first on the floor as one of the trappers struck the back of his head, two of them lifting him up by his arms before a third one sent a fist into his chest to knock the wind out of him. As his arms were tied behind his back, Eret looked up to see Furious hovering above the ship with his sister still riding on her. _**"Eryna! Get Furious out of here!"**_

Eryna thought about this for a moment, before she tilted the handlebars down so that Furious went towards the ship. **_"Eryna, no! No, don't!"_**

Furious swirled and rotated out of the way of the nets and arrows, landing on the deck and baring her teeth at the trappers as they all took a few steps back. Eret still struggled to free himself as Eryna pulled a dagger from her belt.

 ** _"Sister, I told you to go! What are you doing?!"_** Eret snapped as Eryna seemingly readied her dagger to fight. After a moment, a smug grin crossed her face as she straightened back up and returned the dagger to her belt. "So, gentlemen... I assume this satisfies the debt...?"

 _"Wh... wait, wha... what...?"_ Eret was wide-eyed with his mouth hanging open as Eryna shook hands with the captain of the trappers while the others tied up Furious next to the barely conscious Skullcrusher.

The Captain nodded, saying **"aye... the two dragons and the Son of Eret... this is what y'agreed to, innit...?"**

"Yes. Ooh, but that reminds me... I've also taken the liberty of tossing in an extra little treat for you boys..." Eryna went to Furious' saddle and opened the storage compartment at the back. Eret gasped as he saw the tied-up, timidly shaking figure that was sitting in there.

 _ **"Ruff!?"**_

Eryna dragged Ruffnut out of the compartment and threw her onto the floor, removing the gag from her mouth. Once the hand got close enough, Ruffnut shot her face forwards and clamped her teeth onto it.

 **"GAH! Why, you little weasel!"** Eryna pulled back her bitten hand, shooting up and kicking Ruffnut square in the face as the latter grunted bluntly. One of the trappers grabbed the back of the ropes tied around Ruffnut and pulled her to where Eret was being restrained. He still struggled to escape, looking his sister and snarling _"wh... why are you doing this, Eryna!"_

"Why do you think...?" she snarked bitterly at him as she lightly squeezed the hand that Ruffnut had bitten. "I'm paying off my debts doing this, brother... the perfect chance for you to do the same..."

 ** _"What have you done with Cami?!"_** Ruffnut snapped, both she and Eret going wide-eyed as Eryna reached into her pocket and pulled out the hilts of Cami's fire-swords. **_"No... no, no you didn't, you crazy bi..."_**

"I think it's safe to say that Camicazi is _sleeping with the fishes_ now, don't you?" Eryna chuckled to herself, before deploying one of the blades and letting it catch alight as the trappers all stepped back in awe of it. "Hm... y'know, I really do like the look of these things... think I'll keep them. Surely, Cami wouldn't mind it, not that it matters, anyway."

With a smirk on her face, she then looked to the trappers and said "you boys have what you need... now lock them up."

* * *

Cami was sitting behind the scarred man on the Skrill's back, wearing her flight suit while holding her helmet under her arm. Once the ship came into view, the dragon sat on a sea stack and Cami and the man dismounted.

Using a spyglass that she kept in her back pocket, Cami sat on the edge of the sea stack to observe the ship from afar. _"Alright... I see Eret, Ruff and the dragons... you could surprise 'em with another lightning blast..."_

"Precisely..." the man pulled out his dagger and twirled it in his hands. _**"Y'know, I must say... I can see why you and Hiccup get along so well... the ruthlessness, the brains... and you've more than a passing similarity to the Hofferson girl as well... it's truly been a pleasure."**_

 _"Huh... well, yeah, I guess..."_ Cami scoffed, before freezing for a moment as she processed what the man had just said. _"Hang on... been a pleasure... been, as in past tense?"_

 _ **"Indeed... because I'm afraid, Camicazi, that this is the part where we say goodbye..."**_

 _"Wait, what? Aren't you g... aren't you gonna help me fight...?"_ she turned to face him and put the spyglass back in her pocket.

 _ **"My friend and I will strike their ship. Catch them off guard..."**_ he said as he pulled his hood over. _**"That should give you enough time to ambush them... after that, I'm afraid you'll be on your own, at least temporarily... you can improvise from there, I'm sure."**_

 _"Right. Yeah... got it..."_ Cami said under her breath. _"Well, uh... guess it was a pleasure meeting you too, fella..."_

 _ **"Hm..."**_ the man chuckled as he mounted the Skrill and it began flying off the ground. _**"Oh, and just one more thing... i**_ _ **t's probably for the best that Hiccup and his friends don't know I'm still around... the boy's got enough on his plate already, being the chief and all!"**_

Cami nodded, saying _"my lips are sealed, Mr uh... wait, hang on, wh... what's your name again?!"_

 ** _"A minor detail, my dear... a minor detail..."_** the man called with a laugh as the Skrill took off towards the ship.

* * *

Back on the ship, Eryna held open her purse for the Captain of the trappers to empty several gold coins into. **"This ought t'be enough to pay back the one what you got that Deathgripper venom from..."**

"Thank you, my good man... and I'm sure the two riders and their dragons are enough for you as well...?"

 **"Aye. We'll bring 'em to the warlords, we will..."** the Captain said. **"They'll get the location of their chief and his dragon colony out of them before they take their heads..."**

Ruffnut and Eret sat silently in the brig, both of them looking solemnly at the tight, metal cages Furious and Skullcrusher had been placed in. Eret sighed, before saying _"Ruff... I'm sorry... I'm sorry I was such a fool, I... I should have listened to Cami, and... and maybe it'd have been better if we'd just forgotten all about this trip."_

 _"Eh... it was fun while it lasted..."_ Ruffnut snarked. She and Eret grinned weakly at one another, before both going wide-eyed as one of the trappers shouted from above.

 _ **"Battle stations! It's that bloody Skrill again!"**_


	14. Battle

A violent blue sparkled out of the clouds, as the Skrill drove down with great bolts of lightning to strike the ship. **_ZZZZAAAAAAPPP! BOOM! ZZZZAAAAPPP!_**

The large catapults and slingshots the trappers had were set alight by the strikes and some of the trappers already attempted to abandon the ship by jumping into the water, while Eryna and those that remained ran for cover as the Skrill continued tearing into the ship with the electric forks.

 **"Come back, y'cowards!"** The Captain called to the deserters that were swimming away, only for a bolt to strike the top of his helmet as he cried out in agony and fell overboard.

After a few minutes of this continuous attack, the Skrill took off back into the sky with the man on its back, allowing Eret and Ruffnut to see them from the brig.

 _"Wait... where's he going...?"_ Eret panted out in disappointment as the dragon disappeared into the clouds. **_"Wait! You need to help us!"_**

Eryna managed to crawl out from her hiding place onto the scorched, smouldering decks, chuckling a bit in relief as she saw the Skrill leaving. "Well... guess that's all taken care of..."

 ** _"RRRRRAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"_** She went wide-eyed as she looked upwards to see the roaring, winged figure gliding down towards her like a giant, green and purple bat.

"What in the name of... **OOF!** " The figure kicked Eryna in the stomach with both feet as it landed gracefully, sending her flying back so that she knocked over the remaining trappers like clattering bowling pins.

Cami lifted up the front of her mask, smugly grinning at Eryna as she said _"hope you don't mind if I cut in..."_

"On the contrary..." Eryna wasn't deterred by this, pulling out one of the fire swords and igniting it as she rebutted with "as my father used to say... the more the merrier!"

Cami slid down on her knees, narrowly avoiding the flaming blade as Eryna swiped horizontally with it. She managed to reach the entrance to the brig, kicking the latch up and allowing the spring-loaded hatch to flip open. _**"Guys!"**_

 _ **"Cami!?"**_ both Ruffnut and Eret spoke in shock, before the latter added _"we thought Eryna killed you!"_

"I did too, brother!" Eryna's voice snarked, prompting Cami to turn around just in time for Eryna to swat her across the face with the back of her hand with a deafening _**THWACK!**_

 _"Ugh!"_ Cami stumbled backwards down the stairs into the brig, landing hard on the floor as her helmet tumbled off of her head. Eryna jumped down with the blade ignited, holding it over Cami's head. "I'll not make the same mistake this time! **OOF!** "

Cami shot her foot into Eryna's pelvis, knocking the wind out of the latter as she dropped the flaming sword and tumbled back into the corner. Jumping to her feet, Cami barely managed to grab the hilt of the sword before it's blade touched the floor, throwing it between either of her hands as she looked at Eryna with a smirk.

 _"With all due respect, lady... I'm really gonna enjoy this... **HUUUUURRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHH!** "_

 _ **TWANG!**_ Eryna unsheathed the second fire sword, blocking Cami's blade before it could touch her as she got to her feet. Eryna was a good eight inches taller than Cami was, but the Bog Burglar was not fazed or intimidated in the slightest, both of them being driven by an overpowering rage and hatred. _**"AAAAAAHHHHH!"**_

 ** _CHING! SKINT! SHING!_** went their blades as they clashed together. Eryna tried at each opportunity to strike, though Cami dodged, parried and countered each blow effortlessly while occasionally giving a cheap stab or slice at anything exposed on Eryna's midsection.

 **"ENOUGH!"** Eryna finally had enough, swinging the blade upwards and knocking Cami's from her hand with an audible **_SHING!_** before kicking her back against the bars of the cell Ruffnut and Eret were in.

She pinned Cami against the bars as Eret and Ruffnut both watched, holding the blade close enough to her throat for Cami to just feel the heat of the flame.

"You are really starting to piss me off, Camicazi!" she snapped aggressively as she poised her sword back to dispatch her, freezing as a trapper on the upper deck suddenly called out.

 _ **"Argh! More bloody dragon riders!"**_

"What?!" Eryna turned to hear where the voice was coming from, allowing Cami to free herself as she grabbed Eryna's hair and slammed her face forwards into the bars with a metallic _**CLANG!**_

Grabbing the flaming sword Eryna was holding and taking it out of her hand as she hit the floor, Cami stepped away from the bars of the cell and swung her sword diagonally against the lock, the flame instantly melting it and allowing it to drop to the floor as the cell opened. _"Alright... let's get the Hel outta here..."_

 _"Couldn't agree more..."_ Ruffnut snarked as Cami used a smaller, non-flammable knife to cut her and Eret free, the three of them running over to the cages their dragons were and unlocking them. Furious immediately shot forwards to let Cami hug her head tightly, the latter showering her head with kisses as she said _"aw, who's my good girl! Huh? Who's my good girl!? I am never gonna let you out of my sight again, y'hear me?... aw, Furious..."_

 _"Uh... Cami..."_ Eret said as he and Ruffnut led Skullcrusher out of his cage. _"It's nice and all... but we need to get a move on..."_

 _"Oh, right... yeah... come on, girl..."_ Cami led Furious out of the cage and they all climbed the steps out of the brig. _**"Wait, get back!"**_ she suddenly barked as she ducked, letting small projectiles fly over her head straight into the backside of one of the trappers as he cried out in agony. Cami, Ruffnut and Eret slowly moved their heads out of the brig, going slightly wide-eyed as they saw what the projectiles actually were.

A Deadly Nadder's tail spikes.

 _ **"Well, fancy you lot showing up in this side of the ocean!"**_ Eret called up to Stormfly and Windshear as they hovered above the boat, their riders looking down towards them and waving. The two dragons landed on the deck with their armoured riders, one dressed in a blue-and-yellow coloured armour made from Stormfly's scales and the other wearing a pointier, silver-and-green armour made from both Windshear and Shattermaster's scales, dismounted with their axes out.

While she used her axe to disarm another trapper before punching him unconscious, Astrid lifted the faceplate on her helmet and looked at the three, saying _"so... I take it the reunion didn't go so well!"_

Ruffnut groaned as she, Eret and Cami clambered out of the brig. _"Before either of you anything, Astrid, this one **wasn't** my fault!"_

"Yeah! We got your Terror Mail!" Heather grunted as she grabbed one of the trappers and tossed him overboard. Ruffnut and Eret both shrugged as they managed to disarm two other trappers and take their weapons to fight the others with, while Cami was confused as she said _"wait, Ter... Terror Mail...?"_

"Yeah... the one about Eret's crazy sister locking up him and Ruff... came as soon as we got it..."

 _"Huh... uh, cause I di... oh, must have been our guardian angel..."_

Heather lifted her faceplate and looked at Cami with her eyes wide in confusion. "Wait, guardian what...?"

 _"Uh... nothing, it's just... ooh, get down!"_ Cami shoved Heather out of the way and punched out one of the trappers that was trying to attack from behind. _"Forget I said anything, Heather!"_

"Uh... okay..." Heather snarked as Cami leaped over her and they both rejoined the fight. Eret managed to get both his swords back and used them in the fight, jumping over the brig entrance only for a hand to grab onto his foot and hoist him face-first to the floor. _**"UGH!"**_

"You're not getting away with this, brother!" Eryna shrieked crazily as she straddled him from behind, wrapping her arm tight around his neck as Eret got up and struggled to remove her. Astrid, Heather and Ruffnut both saw this and prepared to help, only for Eryna to suddenly be grabbed from behind and pulled off Eret, hitting the floor of the deck hard.

Eryna grabbed one of the flaming swords and ignited it, only to turn around to see who had thrown her off of her brother.

 _"Sorry, Eryna..."_ Cami said as she pointed her own blade at her, a smirk on her face as she added _"your service as Eret's crazy sister is no longer required..."_

 **"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!"** Eryna suddenly shrieked as she jumped from the floor and started swinging with the flaming blade, knocking Cami's out of her hand to the other end of the ship as she struggled to dodge every swipe. Eryna's strikes were powerful, angry and clumsy, so it wasn't easy for Cami to anticipate or counter her attacks, resulting in several chunks of her scale armour being cut and knocked off.

 _"Ugh!"_ Eryna kicked Cami in the stomach and knocked her against the edge of the deck. Cami managed to catch Eryna's wrist with one hand and sent her other fist into her face, going for it again before Eryna grabbed her fist and twisted it. _"Argh!"_

 _ **THWACK!**_ Eryna swatted Cami's face with the back of her hand, before feeling herself being restrained from behind. "Ugh! No! Get off me!"

Eret grunted as he tried to keep a hold of his sister, but she managed to send an elbow into his face as he fell back. Cami jumped up and leapt for Eryna, only for the latter to swing the flaming blade upwards with a metallic _**SHWING!** "AAAARRRGGGHHH!"_

 _ **"CAMI!"**_ Everyone else shrieked as Cami fell back onto the floor clutching her face and crying out. Her screams were blood-curdling and she was kicking her feet wildly as she finally let go of her face and allowed the injury to become visible.

A single, thin yet long cut ran up the left side of her face, starting at the bottom of her neck and reaching the top of her left temple. There wasn't that much blood, as the speed of the swipe and the heat of the blade allowed the wound to be cauterised in a few seconds. But Cami's reaction clearly indicated that she was in complete and utter agony, with her left eye tensed shut and her top teeth sinking into her bottom lip due to the pain.

"Hm... if you ask me, that's an improvement... too bad you're not gonna live to deal with it... **YAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!** " Eryna lifted the blade above her head and prepared to bring it down, only for a Hobblegrunt tail to send her flying off her feet. Furious grabbed the back of Eryna's shirt and tossed her screaming in the opposite direction, causing her to land hard on the wooden deck.

 **"Gah! Stupid beast!"** Eryna pulled herself to her feet, running to the backside of the deck to get the blade Cami dropped with Furious still following behind her. The dragon opened her jaws wide for the kill, but Eryna managed to grab one of the nets from the incinerated catapult and throw it directly at her. _**"Furious!"**_

The dragon cried out as the net wrapped around her wings and legs and caused her to fall at Eryna's feet. _**"NO!"**_ Cami quickly shot up and ran towards her dragon, only to freeze in her tracks as Eryna darted over first, holding Furious' head with one hand and pointing the flaming blade to her neck with the other.

 _"Oh, crap..."_ Ruffnut and Astrid both said in-sync as everyone froze, while Cami pulled out her own sword and ignited it, saying _**"mark my words, you treacherous gambling cow! If you hurt my dragon, I'll rip you up so bad your own mother'd not recognise you!"**_

 **"Come on, then! Try it!"** Eryna snapped as she held the knife closer to Furious' neck. **"One step closer and I'll hack her oversized head right off! You know I will!"**

Astrid held Cami back from lashing out as Heather, Eret and Ruffnut all lowered their weapons slowly and carefully. Eret groaned as he said **_"sister, please! This is between you and me! Furious has no part in this!"_**

"Oh, she does, brother..." Eryna snarked with a grin as she raised the knife and Furious trembled with wide eyes. "She has the most important part of all... the SACRIFICE!"

 **"Daughter, ENOUGH!"**


	15. Family

Everyone looked up as the Night Fury landed on the front of the ship with Clodagh and a one-legged, armoured rider sitting on his back. Eryna moved her blade slightly away from Furious' neck as the Berkian Chief lifted the faceplate on his helmet and stepped off of Toothless' back, extending a hand to Clodagh and helping her down.

Cami tried to break free from Astrid, but the latter kept restraining her as she quietly said _"it's okay, Cami... it'll be fine..."_

"So... take it this is the crazy sister y'mentioned in the letter..." Hiccup snarked as he glanced at Eryna, before looking at Cami and adding "y'know, just wondering, pal... have you been taking handwriting classes, cause your writing looked a little different than u..."

 ** _"Hiccup, do you really wanna talk about this right now?!"_** Cami snapped suddenly as Astrid still struggled to hold her back. **_"My dragon has a sword to her throat, for Thor's sake!"_**

"I'm with Cami here, Chief Haddock..." Cloadagh stepped out from behind Hiccup and looked at her daughter as Eryna went wide-eyed and ghost-white with dread at the sight of her mother. "Let's just get to the bottom of this, shall we?"

"M-Mum, I... I um... oh, thank goodness you're here, I..." Eryna stuttered out, pointing the blade to Cami and adding "these riders ambushed us, they... they were going to sell us to the trappers, and... and if I weren't here, they'd have killed..."

 **"Really now?"** Clodagh loudly interrupted, pretending to sound concerned as everyone looked at her.

None of them were entirely sure how to react at first, before Clodagh smirked and said "well... you know, daughter, everything you're good at in life, _I_ taught you... you're good at sewing, you're... _adequate_ at sword-fighting, but I never taught you how to lie... and that's probably why you're so _bad_ at it."

Ruffnut was the only one to laugh at that remark, but was quickly shut up when Hiccup, Astrid and Cami all shot a glare at her. Clodagh stepped forward slightly, keeping direct eye contact with her daughter as she said "I found your letters, Eryna... you know, the ones where you _pretended_ to be me."

"Oh... oh, right..." Eryna chuckled nervously, gulping as she got to her feet and backed away from Furious while still holding the flaming sword. Within an instant of this, Cami had forced herself away from Astrid and ran to her dragon's side, hugging her head and kissing it frantically as she whispered _"it's okay girl... it's okay, it's okay... mommy's here, she's got you... she's got you..."_

 _"Wait hang on! Eryna, y... **you** wrote those?!"_ Eret looked at his sister as he said this, prompting Ruffnut to roll her eyes as if it were obvious.

Eryna managed to smirk as she pointing the flaming sword in his direction and snapped **"of course I did, you ignorant, immature brute! Ha ha! Y'know, if it weren't benefiting my trick, I'd be practically insulted that you'd honestly think your filthy Bog Burglar friend here would have handwriting half as nice as mine!"**

 _"B... but sister, why?"_

 ** _"DO NOT CALL ME SISTER!"_** Eryna's voice broke slightly as she shrieked this, letting some tears come down her face while she burnt with all the fury and hatred in her sould. _**"All my life I've been playing second fiddle to you! Ooh, Eret's the future of our lineage! Ooh, Eret's our favourite child! Ooh, Eret is and always will be my GREATEST CREATION!"**_

She roared out in anger as she stamped her foot down so hard that it nearly went straight through the floorboards, but she kept glaring at her brother and pointing the sword at him. Eret looked confused and hurt by this, saying _"I... I thought we were close, though... Eryna, you... you were my best friend..."_

"My only friend is myself..." she snarled lowly, her aggression sparking back as she snapped **"you were always the favourite! Always the one Dad put first! Even when he sent you away he was counting the days until you came back! But did I ever get that, no, of course I didn't! Now I'm going to make you pay for what you did to me and I don't care if I have to kill every last dragon rider on this ship to do it!"**

"It's not Eret's fault, daughter!" Clodagh stood in front of Eret as she said this, directly blocking him from his sister. "It... it's... it's mine..."

 _"Mum, what are you doing?!"_ Eret said, but she looked back at him with a brief, reassuring grin. "It's alright, dear..."

She turned back to face an equally-confused Eryna, saying "it's my fault... I... your father and I, we... hm... make no mistake, dear, we loved you just as much as we did your brother, maybe even more!"

 **"Do _not_ lie to me, mother!"**

"It's the truth, Eryna. Yes, Eret was the one with the expectations, Eret was the one who had to carry on the legacy! But that doesn't mean we weren't proud of you too..." Clodagh was losing her composure and letting a few tears come down her face. "You were the youngest, the carefree one, the little angel, we... we couldn't bear to see you suffer the same pressure we were giving to your brother. You didn't need it... we wanted to protect you from it, show we'd love you no matter what, but... ugh... but all it did in the end was pit the two of you against each other..."

Astrid and Heather both tightened their grips on their axes as they looked at Hiccup, but he put up his hand slowly to silently tell them to wait. Cami and Ruffnut both noticed this, before they all looked back at Clodagh and her children. Eret and Eryna were both wide-eyed and tearing up as their mother spoke, before Clodagh continued with "I didn't want this to happen... to either of you... but... but if this is inevitable, I'll give you a choice, daughter... there's two ways this can go..."

Eryna looked up a bit to hear this, as Clodagh said "one... you put down the fire sword, we just... we go home, attend your father's burial and completely start over... or you let them go... and you take out your vengeance on the one person on this ship who actually deserves it..."

As she finished her sentence, she stepped forward a few paces, causing Eryna to nearly lose her breath as she realised what she meant. Eret would have grabbed his mother's arm to stop her but seemed to be too frozen in shock to do anything. _"Mum... Mum, don't..."_

"Please, Eryna..." Clodagh was about twenty feet away from her still-shaking daughter, but reached a hand forwards. "Can you _really_ not find it in your heart to let go of this...?... Please..."

"Mum, I..." Eryna scrunched up her face as she tried to stop herself from crying, but it was no use, collapsing to her knees and sniffling loudly as she wiped her eye with the back of her sleeve. After about a minute of this, she managed to stand and straighten up and exhaled heavily, her tone now being a lot more calm as she looked at the sword in her hand.

"Well... Mum... when you put it that way... no I'm **NOT**!"

 **SCHLICK!** Everyone went wide-eyed and nearly catatonic as Clodagh slowly clutched the hilt of the flaming sword that had been thrown directly into her chest, the blade of which was protruding from her back. _**"MUM!"**_

Eret and Hiccup let Clodagh fall back into their arms and slowly lowered her back to the floor, Hiccup pulling the sword out and Eret trying to keep in the blood while Cami and Ruffnut both tackled Eryna and pinned her down.

 _"No... Mum, no... no-no-no-no-no..."_

"Astrid! Get... get her on Stormfly! Hurry!" Hiccup was going ghost-white and hyperventilating as he let Astrid and Heather pick up Clodagh and bring her over to the Nadder.

Hiccup then pulled Eret to his feet, frantically pushing him over to Skullcrusher before calling "Cami, Ruff! We gotta get outta here!"

Ruffnut was about to object, only for she and Cami to both go wide-eyed as the trappers got back up and tried to ready the remaining weapons they had. _"Aw man... he's right..."_

 **"Guys, come on!"**

 _"Alright, alright!"_ Cami called back as she grabbed Eryna by the back of the neck and shoved her forwards, adding _"you're coming back with us!"_

Ruffnut shoved Eryna onto the back of Furious' saddle as she and Cami climbed in front of her. The dragons all took off into the sky with the riders on their backs, narrowly swooping and twirling to avoid the arrows and nets the trappers were firing at them.

"Come on, bud! Faster!" Toothless grumbled as Hiccup said this to him, while Cami looked over at Skullcrusher to see Eret gazing worryingly at his mother sitting bleeding behind Astrid on Stormfly.

 _"Don't worry, pal!"_ Cami called to him as Ruffnut tightened her grip on her waist. She was trying to sound reassuring, but her tone did betray the feeling that she didn't entirely believe the first part of what she was reassuring Eret about. _"We're gonna, um... we'll make sure your mom's okay... and we'll definitely put your sister in the cage she belongs in, ha ha!"_

"You... you little..." Eryna panted softly as she glared furiously at Cami from behind. She reached into her boot, causing Ruffnut to prick up in alarm at the small _**snikt!**_ of the knife she pulled out. **"You ruined everything!"**

 ** _"Cami!"_** Ruffnut suddenly shoved the Bog Burglar aside, groaning as she let Eryna's blade slice down through the vest she wore and fell back clutching her right shoulder groaning in agony.

 _"Oh gods! **Ruff!** "_ Cami went wide-eyed as she turned and grabbed Ruffnut with both arms to stop her from falling off of Furious' back, using all her strength to pull her up and unable to focus on Eryna raising her now-bloodied blade to strike again.

 _ **"NO!"**_ Eryna looked up with wide eyes to see Skullcrusher flying just above Furious, which allowed Eret to jump down and tackle his sister so they both tumbled down the Hobblegrunt's back. They both ended up latched onto Furious' tail, Eryna struggling to hang onto her brother while he tried to climb back up the dragon.

 _ **"Eryna! You need to hold... Eryna!"**_ Eret reached frantically for his sister as she lost her grip, managing to grab hold of her belt until it snapped open. _**RRRIIIPPP!**_

 **"NO!"** Eryna reached out to grab the dozens of coins that began falling out of the purse as it tore open, not being able to catch a single one as Eret grabbed her arm and hoisted her back onto Furious.

 **"My gold!"** she shrieked, watching wide-eyed in horror at the coins as they fell into the water and disappeared under the waves. **"No... no, you fool! They'll have my head without that gold!"**

She stopped then to look at the knife that was still in her hand, a snarling smirk on her face as she lifted it above Eret and said **"at least I'll get to take _yours_ instead!"**

 _ **"We don't think so!"**_ two voices suddenly said in-sync, causing Eryna and Eret to both look up as Cami launched Ruffnut towards them. Ruffnut grunted as she shot her foot up and it went into Eryna's face, causing the latter to lose her grip on Eret as she fell backwards.

Eret narrowly grabbed Ruffnut with both hands while Cami darted over to hold the back of his vest, crying out in agony as she pulled with all her strength to get the pair of them back on Furious' back.

The three of them watched as Eryna plummeted screaming towards the ship, landing in the water next to it as the trappers dragged her on board. Eret sighed as he saw this, Ruffnut groaning through the pain from her injury as she said _"don't feel too bad. I never liked her."_

Cami chuckled at this, before hoisting the pair onto Furious' back as she went back to the front of her dragon's saddle and they followed the other dragons back to the island.

* * *

They landed on the beach in front of Clodagh's village as Astrid dismounted Stormfly and she and Heather carried Clodagh down to sit her up against a rock. The wound in her chest was still bleeding profusely, and her hands were a dark, messy brown because of the dried blood that had already leaked onto them.

Hiccup had the girls all stand back as Eret ran to his mother's side, with Eret being the only one who had any genuine belief that Clodagh would survive. _"Alright Mum, don't... just don't worry, we'll... we'll sort you out soon enough, and... and..."_

"This... this was always going to happen, son... ugh..."

 _"Wha... Mum, what are you talking about, I... I don't understand..."_

"I... I knew your sister, what she was planning, but... but it was just nice to get the family back together again, you know...?"

 _"Oh Mum, just... just hang on. We'll get you fixed up, and... and..."_

"No... no, it... it's alright dear... this needed to happen?"

 _"No Mum, just... just don't talk like that, it... it'll be fine, we'll... Hiccup, do you have anything to cover um... cover her stab wound or..."_

"It's over, son." Clodagh finally panted out as he looked worryingly at her, Clodagh taking her hand from her injury and letting it bleed onto the ground. "Eret, I've nothing more to accomplish in my life. You have. And it's time for you to stop living for the past... have your own life..."

 _"No... Mum, I... the only thing keeping me alive's been the dream of coming home and being part of the family again."_

"The... they're a nice bunch..." as Clodagh panted this out she motioned in the direction of the others, who were all still standing back silently to give them some space. "They care about you... and I know you care about them... they... they're your family now, Eret..."

 _"What... no! Mum, don't... don't say that, please..."_ Eret held his mother's hand anxiously, but she calmly cupped the side of his face and wiped one of his tears away.

"I'm so proud of you, darling... I really am... but..." Clodagh used the remainder of her strength to pull Eret closer so that their foreheads were touching. "But it's time for you to move on..."

 _"Mum, I... Mum?"_ Eret realised that Clodagh was drooping back with her eyes closed, slowly letting her lifeless body down onto the ground as he tearfully knelt over it. Cami was the first to walk over to him and place a comforting hand on his shoulder, Eret looking up at her and the others as they all walked over.

 _"She's right..."_ he sighed as he wiped his face and sniffled his nose. _"She... she's right... it's... it's over..."_

 _"Hey... don't think of it as the end."_ Ruffnut said in a quieter, gentler and kinder tone than anyone had ever heard from her, surprising the others as they all looked at her. _"Just... just think of it as a new beginning..."_


	16. Ascension

The burial ceremony was nice enough. It was short, simple, and Clodagh was buried next to her dearly departed husband, just as they'd both have wanted. Hiccup and the other riders stood behind the rest of the crowd, having mutually agreed that it would be for the best since Clodagh and Eret XII's funeral was more important to those that had actually known them in life.

The distribution of the gifts in Eret XII's inheritance will was mostly uneventful as well, with the small but still generous chest of gold and jewels being given to Eret due to Eryna's absence negating the need for an equal division between them.

The dragons were no trouble at all either, and it was clear after Furious and Skullcrusher's introduction the village was already to start to warm up to them, with Toothless in particular being popular with the younger children. When the ceremony finished, the Berkians decided to give the young ones a first-hand experience of their winged friends.

 _"And this is what happens when you scratch under his neck..."_ Astrid said as she demonstrated this trick to the children, all of them giggling in shock and joy as the Night Fury dropped flat to the ground, before going over to Stormfly to show the children how the Nadder would let them smooth her tail spikes down.

Cami and Ruffnut were both standing with Furious, Cami buckling the Hobblegrunt's saddle while Ruffnut carried their small but fully packed satchels.

The healers in the village had been generous enough to look at their injuries from the fight with the trappers, and while neither of them were in agony anymore they'd regretfully had to tell them that the cut on Cami's face and what remained of the stab wound on Ruffnut's shoulder would scar permanently.

"All packed up, huh?" Heather remarked as she noticed them coming over, Cami nodding as she stroked her dragon's neck and said _"yeah... Furious is all set for it..."_

 _"As are we..."_ they all looked to Eret as he sighed this, walking over with Skullcrusher as he loaded the chest onto the Rumblehorn's saddle. Hiccup and Astrid stood up and brought Toothless and Stormfly over to the others, Astrid holding her betrothed's hand as they both looked at Eret.

"You feeling okay?" Hiccup asked, Eret nodding as he wiped his nose with the back of his hand.

 _"Yeah... yeah, I'm totally fine."_ there was a chuckle in Eret's voice here, before he added _"it's Cami y'really need to worry about! Ha ha!"_

Heather and Astrid both chuckled as well, before Eret took on a more serious tone as he actually got to look at the scar on Cami's face. _"But Cami, I'm... I am sorry... if, if I'd only listened to you two, you wouldn't even have that... and maybe my Mum's still be here..."_

 _"Your mom died happy, pal... and don't you worry about this either..."_ Cami drew her finger down the mark with her familiar grin. _"Far as I'm concerned, it's a family scar. Goes pretty good with yours, I think..."_

 _"Ha ha... yes, I suppose it does. In a way..."_ Eret itched at the branding on his chest, before they all went wide-eyed as Ruffnut lifted her shirt to show her stab wound and shouted _**"I have one too, guys!"**_

They all laughed awkwardly at this as they looked away, Cami grabbing the end of Ruffnut's shirt and pulling it back down over her chest. Eret patted both Ruffnut and Cami on the back as he looked to Hiccup and said _"so... what d'you say we all go home?"_

* * *

Eryna groaned as the small dinghy aggressively scraped upwards to the rough sand of the beach, the remaining trappers grabbing her arms and throwing her out of the boat and onto the ground. She quickly scrambled so she was sitting upwards, coughing as she looked back at them and said "wh... what are you doing... where are we?"

One of the trappers shrugged, saying _"y'lost the riders, love... can't pay off yer debt without them, can ye?"_

"What, n... no, no, I..." Eryna quickly got to her feet as the dinghy began floating away. "No, where are you going? It... it's not over, just... just tell Ra..."

"Ragnar isn't interested!" another trapper called as the boat got further and further from the bay. "Your business with us is done! Yar _his_ problem now!"

"Wait, wh... _who's_ problem?!"

Eryna went ghost-white with terror as she heard something land hard behind her, barely moving an inch as she turned her head to see two armoured Deathgrippers standing there, snarling at her as the acid-like venom dripped down from their sizeable fangs and left singeing puddles in the ground beneath them.

 ** _"Eryna, daughter of Eret XII!"_** a deep yet soft-spoken voice said as the tall, leather-clad and hooded figure it belonged to stepped out from behind the two dragons, while Eryna turned her entire body to face him and began shuffling backwards. "Gr... I... I... I can explain! Please, I..."

 ** _"Oh, don't worry, child, don't worry... your friends here have explained everything I need to know..."_** the man pulled down his hood to expose his short, grey hair, itching at his long chin as he loaded something into the crossbow he was holding. **_"For example... you don't have the money for that venom I sold you..."_**

"What? Oh... oh no, Grimmel, please, I... just give me another chance!"

 ** _"As tempting as it is, my dear, I'm afraid eight years is simply too long a wait to pay off a debt... and you've just about run out of chances, unfortunately..."_**

The man casually whistled a command to the Deathgrippers, walking away from them as the dragons stalked snarling towards Eryna. She continued stuttering as she shuffled backwards, finally stopping with her back against a rock.

 **"Oh no.. oh-no-no-no-no-no! Grimmel... Grimmel! AAAAAGGGGGHHH!"**

* * *

 **Bog Burglar Isle - One Week Later...**

 _"So... big day's finally here, huh?"_ Astrid sighed as she finished the single braid she was putting at the back of Cami's head, she and Valka taking a few steps back as Cami got out of her seat. She chuckled as Astrid brought her over to look at their reflection, hitting Hiccup's betrothed on the shoulder as she said _"you'd think I'd be getting married with how you two dolled me up like this."_

"What? I think you look nice, dear..." Valka chortled as Cami looked back to her sheepishly.

 _"Yeah, I know, Aunt Val, and I look great, it's just..."_ Cami pursed her lips as she looked back at the mirror to observe herself.

Over the skintight, long-sleeved black shirt she wore a double-scabbard belt and a fur cloak that hung from either of her shoulders. A thin golden ring was pierced through her right ear lobe, the eye shadow she wore was a darker shade of bluish-black, and her hair was flatter and tidier thanks to the braid Astrid made but was no less free and flowing despite this.

Her mouth lifted into a smirk, before she said _"does it look... I dunno, **chiefly** enough?"_

 _"Pft. Of course."_ Astrid patted her on the back. _"Besides, Hiccup became chief when he was wearing that ridiculous leather flight suit, remember?"_

Making sure she didn't laugh too intensely at this, since any tears could ruin her eye-shadow, Cami put her hands on her hips, looking back at herself in the mirror one more time. _"Alright... I'm ready..."_

* * *

Astrid stood beside Heather, Ruffnut and Eret near the front of the crowd, being one row behind the actual front where Hiccup, Mala, Dagur, Bertha and Valka were standing. They all proudly watched Cami get down on one knee as the Bog Elder stepped forward as well.

The old, hunched woman dipped her finger into a small bowl of ashes, Cami closing her eyes as she let the Elder use it to draw the Bog crest onto her forehead. As Cami stood up she glanced towards the other riders with a grin, before grunting as Furious suddenly ran onto the platform to tackle her playfully to the ground.

 ** _"Aw come on girl, you're ruining my big moment!"_** she heartily laughed as she struggled to get out of the Hobblegrunt's embrace. Eret and Ruffnut both ran onto the stage and lifted her up above their shoulders as Hiccup and Astrid followed.

 **"To Ze Great Camicazi, High Chieftain of the Bog Burglar Tribe!"** Hiccup called out as the crowd erupted into cheers, while Cami wrapped her arms tight around Furious' neck and held her dragon close to herself.

When they finally put her down, Eret grinned warmly as he looked at his fellow riders while they all celebrated. They looked to him with similar grins as he said _"I've got to admit, you lot... Mum was right. This family's pretty great."_

* * *

 **THE END**


End file.
